MEXICO: Echeverría's Successor... Friend of Imperialism & the Mexican Bourgeoisie by ALFONSO RIOS Although no democracy exists, the regime has permitted and even favored a certain flexible facade and has altowed for the possibility of a contest among the strongest ministers over the presidential candidacy. This time, two blocs were formed during the race for succession, one around Mario Moya Palencia, the secretary of the interior, the other around Hugo Cervantes de Rfo, secretary of the presidency. At first, the former appeared stronger, and the layer of professional politicians, especially those of the official party, the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI - Institutional Revolutionary party), were leaning toward this bloc, It also became clear that Echeverria was trying to overlay the traditional methods with a democratic veneer. But it later became obvious that this was only a crude presidential maneuver aimed at exerting the president's hegemony even more strongly and routing potential opponents. It was declared that the PRI would first work out a program, then it would think about what man should be placed in charge of implementing this program during the next six years. Thus, up to a few days before September 22, when López Portillo was designated, it was still being said that the PRI candidate would be named only at the beginning of October, after the holding of the Regular National Assembly of the party, that is, after September 22-25. A Marxist analysis of what happened must take account of the impossibility of discovering the most concrete and precise details of what went on and must try to develop this analysis within the framework of a general understanding of the character of the regime. It is necessary to take all this into account in order to understand what finally happened.
NEW WAVE OF REPRESSION
A series of arrests was launched against the members of revolutionary and democratic organizations in Mexico during the second half of September. Under the pretext that a big action was being prepared for September 23 by the militarist organization named after that date (the September 23 League), the police arrested, tortured, and imprisoned dozens of alleged guerrillas. Some militants were later released, such as our comrades Carof Juárez near the U.S. border. The Grupo Comunista Internacionalista (GCI - Internationalist Communist Group) was hard hit by the repressing th sion; the police raided the GCI headquarters, where rible torture, which was neither explained nor justified after the Mexico City comrades were released. In fact, there is nothing new in this. As was pointed out in a leaflet signed by more than seventy organizations, "It is common police practice to pick up people who have opposed official policy in one way or another, deny that they are being held, and torture and interrogate them for several days until 'confessions" are extracted; then they are officially arrested, released, or, in some cases in which the torture inflicted has been excessive, they simply disappear." The same leaflet, which was widely distributed among democratic organizations and public opinion as a whole, stressed that these arbitrary actions are part of the repressive logic that is being developed in this country under the pretext of combatting "terrorism. " In the state of Guerrero hundreds of peasants have been detained and accused of belonging to the guerrilla group of Lucio Cabañas, who has recently disappeared. The number of polftical prisoners is on the The Regular Assembly was to take place during days that were crucial for the designation of the candidate. A massive demonstration of the Confederac ión Nacional de Organizaciones Populares (CNOP — National Confederation of Popular Organizations) called for September 24 was destined to be the scene of possible surprises. The astute leaders of this branch of the PRI - which, along with the Confederación Nacional Campesina (CNC-National Peasant Confederation) and the Central de Trabajadores Mexicanos (CTM-Mexican Workers Federation), is one of the main pillars of the party — had publicly declared that the vote of the president in the selection of the presidential candidate would be decisive. If was later known why that declaration was made. The president chooses his successor, but his choice is not arbitrary; it is made over a limited field. In the case of the last five presidents, the secretary of the in8 rise, as is shown by the cases of the trade-union leader Moßses Escamilla and the militant Manuel Anzaldo, the latter accused of being linked to the September 23 League, President Luß Echeverria has shifted the course of his policy against the revolutionary and democratic movement and has altered some of the means of applying this policy. The new methods were set in motion in conjunction with the policy of "democratic opening" the regime Initiated in 1971, a policy that has enabled the government to carry out, with virtual impunity, a selective repression against the revolutionary groups and, above all, against the militarist groups. But, as we have pointed out, this repression is now striking both political groups and broader social sectors; such is the case with the peasants of Guerrero and with the GCI. During 1975 the GCI experienced growth that undoubtedly made it the largest revolutionary group to the left of the Mexican Communist party, which had monopolized the functioning of the Mexican left for decades. Today, as is apparent from the rejection of Echeverrfa at the University of Mexico and the demonstrations in solidarity with the struggles in Spain, the GCI is a pole that is recognized by thousands of militants who are moving closer and closer to revolutionary Marxism. Last September the successful visit to Mexico of comrade Ernest Mandel (see INPRECOR, No.35, October 9) allowed us to hold several very large meetings, particularly the final one, in defense of Portugal, which was attended by more than 2,000 people. All these meetings, organized by the GCI, convinced the regime and its police instruments that the GCI had to be watched more closely. That is what accounts for the