As was the case with Calderon, Roberto Madrazo, the PRI’s 2006 presidential candidate, was born into a political family. His father was Carlos Madrazo, a would-be reformer of the party in the 1960s. The younger Madrazo first reached national prominence in 1994 when he was elected governor of Tabasco. However, the publicity he received was not what politicians normally seek. First came Lopez Obrador’s charges that he had stolen the elections. At his swearing-in ceremony on January 1, 1995, Madrazo was surrounded by 3,000 soldiers and police who kept protesters at bay. That image had hardly faded before documents were leaked showing that he had spent $70 million dollars—far in excess of the legal limit—during his gubernatorial campaign. Given these images, it is not surprising that Madrazo failed to win his party’s 2000 presidential nomination.17
In 2002, Madrazo won the presidency of the PRI in an internal party election plagued with irregularities. After having used his stint as party president to position himself for a presidential race, Madrazo emerged as a strong contender to be the PRI presidential candidate in 2006. Many PRI leaders decided that, given his tawdry reputation, a Madrazo candidacy would be the kiss of death for the party, so they formed an informal caucus within the party known as “Everyone United Against Madrazo.” This caucus decided to promote the PRI member with the best chance of defeating Madrazo in a primary and then winning the presidency. The person selected for this role was Arturo Montiel, former governor of the vote-rich State of Mexico. Shortly before the primary, information was leaked to the press on Montiel’s financial dealings while he was serving as governor. He had deposited $2.8 million in a Merrill-Lynch account, had funneled a long list of other transactions through foreign and domestic bank accounts, and had diverted state funds to a PRI campaign in Michoacan. Overwhelmed by these revelations, Montiel withdrew from the PRI primary, leaving Madrazo unchallenged. These revelations provided Madrazo with a Pyrrhic victory since, instead of causing the public to view Montiel as corrupt, it reinforced the belief that PRI politicians in general were corrupt.18
World History
