Following Election Loss, Leader Of Mexico’s Pri Resigns

The embattled leader of Mexico’s governing party resigned Tuesday following devastating election losses in July that led to the first opposition-run Congress in modern Mexican history.

The ouster of Humberto Roque Villanueva, confirmed by the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, sets the stage for a possible struggle over the future of the political group that has run Mexico since 1929.

The party’s executive secretary, Juan S. Millan, will serve as temporary head until a permanent successor is named.

President Ernesto Zedillo has long vowed to keep an arms-length relation with the party - called the PRI - as part of efforts to increase democratic government in Mexico. But that has caused confusion in an institution that has relied on presidential direction since the mid-1930s.

Roque, 53, has been named head of a relatively obscure state-run insurance company, Aseguradora Hidalgo. He lasted only nine months as party leader after heading its delegation in the lower house of Congress.

He told the Televisa television network that his move “corresponds … with the decision of the president.”

“The PRI does not need any rescue as such. What it needs is strengthening. It needs cohesion and militancy and internal democracy,” Roque said.

The shake-up came as Mexico’s powerful interior secretary, Emilio Chuayffet - rumored to be a possible successor to Roque - appeared before the new Congress. Chuayffet, in charge of domestic political affairs, called for “consensus, dialogue and tolerance” as Mexico adjusts to a multiparty system.

Several opposition politicians lashed back at Chuayffet, accusing him of resisting political change, blocking settlement of guerrilla conflicts and covering up human rights violations.

“You have allied yourself with the most anti-democratic and intransigent forces of the Mexican political system,” charged congressman Demetrio Sodi de la Tijera of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party.

Chuayffet’s address to Mexico’s lower house - the first of a series of appearances by Cabinet ministers - was widely seen as a showdown between the once-imperial presidency and a legislature flexing new muscle.

The PRI won only 39 percent of the vote in the July 6 congressional elections. But because of rules giving a disproportionate number of seats to the top vote-getting party, it wound up with 48 percent of the seats in Congress.

The two leading opposition parties - National Action and Democratic Revolution - each won about 26 percent of the vote.

The new Congress is expected to transform Mexican politics, forcing Zedillo to negotiate with lawmakers who no longer automatically back his proposals.