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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | May 2005 
PRI's Man In For Tough Race
 Chris Kraul & Richard Boudreaux - LATimes
| | PRI leader Roberto Madrazo has been able to get his party back in the game, but his polarizing nature and a popular leftist opponent will make it difficult for the PRI to win the presidency. |
Mexico City - Meet Mexico's marathon man, Roberto Madrazo, who spends three hours a day working out and the rest running - for president.
The trim 52-year-old says the discipline and training from his 32 marathons are political assets as well. They have helped him outlast rivals to become the leader of Mexico's former ruling party, bring it back from the dead and position himself as a major contender in the 2006 presidential election.
"Politics is an endurance race, too," said Madrazo, whose charm, infectious laugh and tendency to touch a lot during interviews brings to mind a Latin Bill Clinton. "You learn you have to push through after hitting the wall, to dominate pain, to not give in to cramps or blisters, to recover yourself so you can triumph. Low blows don't matter - you keep running."
Madrazo has a reputation for delivering a timely elbow of his own to disable or eliminate a rival. His two most significant electoral victories, the Tabasco state governorship in 1994 and the nationwide leadership of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, in 2002, bolstered his reputation as having a "doctorate in electoral engineering."
His stamina and tactical skills are being tested as never before. The presidential race is shaping up as a bitter fight between Madrazo and the leftist rival he beat in Tabasco in 1994, Andres Manuel López Obrador, with each struggling to capitalize on popular disillusionment with center-right President Vicente Fox.
López Obrador, now Mexico City's mayor, emerged as the clear front-runner last week, when the Fox administration's attempt to prosecute him over a land dispute and knock him off the ballot all but collapsed amid a well organized outpouring of public sympathy. The backlash has weakened Madrazo because of his backstage role in engineering the congressional vote last month that stripped the mayor of immunity from prosecution.
The PRI leader has fallen 10 percentage points behind the mayor in voter preference polls.
Moving to limit the damage, Madrazo said he welcomed his old rival on the ballot. "We will beat him again," he said.
But Madrazo is such a polarizing figure that many wonder whether he can win Mexico's highest office.
He has a long list of former friends and supporters who say he betrayed them after they outlived their usefulness.
"Maybe it's his extreme coldness, which in a politician may be a virtue, but in a human being is something detestable," said Arturo Nunez, a former PRI federal deputy who says Madrazo dumped him after promising support in the 2000 Tabasco governor's race. Others praise his common touch.
"He listens to people," said Alfonso Izquierdo, a longtime friend and political confidant. "He follows the adage that although it may be high noon, if the people say it's dark, then light the lanterns."
The love-hate reaction to the thrice-married Madrazo could cause problems in the presidential race, analysts say. Opinion polls consistently show that voters trust Madrazo least among major contenders.
"His negative poll numbers may well make him unelectable," said Leo Zuckermann, a Mexico City political scientist and elections expert. "No one is neutral about Roberto Madrazo. He excites passions."
Doubts that he can overcome those negative perceptions to win a national election have divided the party and prompted several PRI governors and a senator to oppose him for the party's nod. But no strong alternative candidate has emerged.
For now, Madrazo is basking in the party's gratitude for reviving its prospects.
When he became the PRI's leader, the party was broke, demoralized and rudderless after losing the presidency in 2000 for the first time in its 71-year history. Today, the PRI is on solid financial ground, has racked up significant gains in both houses of the Mexican Congress and suffered only one net loss in 20 gubernatorial elections. Last year, the PRI wrested the Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez mayorships from Fox's National Action Party, or PAN, two key victories.
"I took over a party with no winning spirit, and now the PRI is winning elections, has a new electoral strategy and is more democratic," Madrazo said in an interview. |
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