Thousands Mobilized for Chihuahua Inaugural

CHIHUAHUA, Mexico —  As if to drown charges of electoral fraud in a sea of pomp and plaza politicking, Mexico’s ruling party mobilized thousands of its faithful to celebrate the inauguration Friday of Chihuahua state’s new governor.

The hoopla appeared aimed at eclipsing opposition protests that have persisted since election day, July 6. For almost three months, the conservative National Action Party, loser in the vote, has staged fasts, blocked highways, published manifestoes and even complained to the Organization of American States about electoral fraud.

The new governor, Fernando Baeza, warned the opposition against protests that might be seen to violate the law. “I will not hesitate to give an answer to intolerance, to violations of the legal order,” he said in his inaugural speech.

‘Roads of Anger’

“There are roads of frustration, of collective poison, of anger that can end in consuming us,” he added. “We cannot travel by that road.”

Looking on was President Miguel de la Madrid who flew to Chihuahua city, the state capital, to preside over the inauguration celebration.

The ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party brought in thousands of supporters and members of government-affiliated unions by bus, truck and train from all over the northern desert state to cheer De la Madrid and Baeza. The use of taxis and buses to ferry government backers to locations along De la Madrid’s airport motorcade route left hundreds of everyday passengers stranded in the city of Chihuahua.

Schools canceled classes, ensuring the participation of teachers belonging to government-linked unions at the official rallies.

National Action, promising to continue its protests, held subdued demonstrations in the form of mass meetings, 12-hour fasts and rhythmic horn-honking.

As De la Madrid’s motorcade pulled into town, a National Action caravan left town in the other directon.

The inauguration and counterdemonstrations reflected the political balance sheet in Chihuahua in the wake of the vote.

A Test of Power

The election in this state, where the opposition has long been powerful, was seen as a measure of the grip on power by the PRI, as the ruling party is universally known in Mexico. The PRI-dominated national administration, under fire for its handling of a declining economy and for widespread corruption, hoped to show that it was still supported nearly unanimously here and in other states where elections were held this year.

On paper, the PRI was victorious: it won not only the Chihuahua governorship, but 66 of 67 mayoralties. The party, however, was not able to put behind it the issue of fraud and thus failed to gain an image of cleanly won popularity.

Mexican journalists wrote of open ballot-box stuffing, and a group of prominent writers and academics published a letter asking the government to annul the results.

“Citizen testimony and testimony in the national and international press register sufficient irregularities to throw reasonable doubt over the legality of the whole process,” said the letter, signed by 20 intellectuals.

Church’s Condemnation

The Roman Catholic Church, in an unusual thrust into politics, also condemned the vote.

PRI leaders tried to blame the opposition for the lingering controversy. “It is they who are acting immorally,” said Baeza this week.

PRI victories in elections elsewhere were also controversial. Protests about electoral fraud have been widespread, if short-lived.

After a PRI sweep in Durango state this summer, supporters of the PRI and National Action clashed in a violence disturbance that left one opposition supporter dead.

Recently, leftist opposition coalitions in Oaxaca state occupied several city halls to protest alleged election fraud there.

Last year, several mayoral inaugurations, in municipalities from one end of the country to the other, were marred by violence and city hall burnings.

Nonetheless, the PRI appeared willing to risk unrest in pursuit of what is called here the carro completo-- the fully loaded automobile. As expressed by party leaders, the carro completo meant that after a period when a few opposition municipal victories were tolerated, the PRI put all its resources to work at winning them back.

Vanishing Aspirations

Meanwhile, National Action, the country’s strongest opposition group, appears reduced to civil protest as its main source of influence.

National Action had aspired to be the first non-PRI party to take a governorship, after 60 years in which the PRI has monopolized the presidency, the statehouses, the Mexican Senate and most congressional seats and city hall posts.

Yet today, National Action controls only one city hall in Chihuahua state, its main northern stronghold, and has lost the bulk of its public offices elsewhere.

At least in Chihuahua, National Action remains defiant. As an additional protest, party leaders have rejected seats in the state legislature and on the Chihuahua city commission that were conceded to it by the PRI.

“We don’t accept little gifts from a process that was illegitimate,” said Luis Alvarez, the outgoing mayor of Chihuahua city, one of seven city halls in the state held by the National Action before July’s vote.

“We will continue along the same lines,” said Francisco Barrio, National Action’s losing candidate for governor.