dr olga lazin-andrei history 16, syllabspring,3_11_12

8/2/2019 Dr Olga Lazin-Andrei History 16, SyllabSpring,3_11_12

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UCLA History 161A Spring Quarter, 2012Dr Olga Lazin Tue & Thur, 2:00-3:45

THE MEXICAN REVOLUTION SINCE 1910AND ITS BACKGROUND

This course introduces students to struggles that have marked Mexicos history during the last 10

years. As we will see, these recent struggles are not new, but rather are based in the context of t

countrys long history since the height of the Aztec Empire beginning in 1486 and the Spanish

changes imposed on Mexico beginning with the Conquest in 1521 and the process of Independenfrom Spain in 1821. New Spain paid 35 times more taxes to Spain than did the 13 English Coloin what would become the United States, already favored by geographic conditions.

During three centuries of Spanish rule Mexico was essentially a colony cut off from the world (amain factor in what would lead to the smuggling of goods into, through, and then out of the

country). With accidental independence in 1821, Mexico had to begin to create a framework fo

national governance, including the education of the masses who had been previously ignored as

well as the establishment of a free press to stimulate public debate about how to best govern thnew nation. Immigration was explicitly closed to non-Spaniards until 1821 and implicitly closed

owing to constant political instability, battles, and unsafe travel until the 1880s.

The Mexican Revolution beginning in 1910 sought to identify and build new institutions that

could face the fact that Mexico has never resolved most problems, but rather accumulated a

series of partial solutions that complicate on-going change. Mexicos difficult geographic

situation and demographic history continue to influence how the government seeks to establish

principles on which to organize government and reinvent social organization in the face of post

1521 problems, such as damage to pastures by erosion and overuse. Consequent long-termerosion and droughts have harshly affected Mexicos agro/ranching rural life as well as ability to

identify Mexicos preoccupation with the land after Industrialization reached take-off (1941-1951).

Thus, all periods of Mexican history have shifted recurrently among the following systems ofgovernment: Full Central Statism (State Capitalism), Active Statism (Partial Central StateCapitalism/) and Anti- State Central Power (with some near anarchical transitions). Each shifinvolved jarring new laws and regulations on the best ways to allow the population to hold landtitles, in the process veering from latifundia to minifundia (and back again) while taking into accthe extent to which small and medium properties can be accommodated. Too, urban debate involv

extent to which small and medium-sized industries/businesses face pressures from large ones.

The systems have gone through 13 cycles since before and after 1521all involving recurring is

regarding social class, roles and laws of the Roman Catholic Church, Military, Police as well a

legislative, judicial bodies, labor unions, business associations, and professional societies (especi

law, health, and medicine). Important recurring themes involve private investors (foreign anddomestic), monopolies, workers in Mexico (and eventually migrant workers in the USA), as well

students and the gender and family roles at different levels of society.

On the one-hand, with time, international trade relations and investment have emerged to give

Mexico an important role in the expansion of its economy into tourism and the making of free

trade agreements. On the other hand, since the 1980s Mexico has found itself facing Mexican

Narcotraficantes who, rather than seeking to replace government, seek to defeat police functions

A common theme in all epochs involves Mexicos Huge National Problems identified by majo

Mexican policymakers in 1908 and 1909 as well as in 1988 and 2006. Thus, this course examinesnew generations seek to adapt old bureaucracies to understandpartially resolved problems.


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Course AdministrationOffice: 6299 Bunche Hall, telephone: 310-825-4569

Requirements: Lecture and discussion: Two sessions of 1 hour & 45 min each in length--oneTue, and 105 minutes again on Thurclass attendance is mandatory; weekly reading

assignments and assessment of historical statistics in graphs and charts.

Examinations (open notes and books, but no electronicsare permitted (cell phones, computersurfing the Internet during class). Please bring Blue Books:

Mid-Term Exam: May 10, Thursday (covers lectures, discussions, articles and

Basic Lecture Outline on Course Website, Booklets through May 3)

Final: June 11, Monday, 11:30-2:30

Grading: 30% Mid-term50% Final

20% Participation in class and in office hours (asking important questions anddiscussing lectures and readingseach student must sign up for at least

one appointment with the professor

E-mails from the professor require that all students need to be sure that they havetheir correct email address on-file with the UCLA Registrar, and the class TA.

Course website with latest articles and Basic Outline of Lectureshttp://www.registrar.ucla.edu/schedule/detselect.aspx?termsel=12S&subareasel=HIST&idxcrs=0160B+++

Required Booklets available from:Westwood Copies: call ahead to assure availability of Booklets: Tel 310-208-3233,Gayley (just south of Weyburn. next to Coffee Bean; students may enter also from alley parking

the back of the store)

(Copies are available on two-hour Reserve at Powell Library)

A. MEXICO SCHEMA 6.0 (Revised and expanded edition, 2012)Bring this volume with you to all of our class sessionsthis is the guide to

lectures and discussions

B. Charts and Readings on Mexican History (revised and expanded, 2012)Bring Volume with you to all of our class sessionswe discuss this material

C.The Six Ideological Phases of Mexicos Permanent Revolution(1990)

D. Many Images of Mexico (2012)1. Simpsons View of Mexicos Geography2. Clines View of Pre-Colonial, Colonial, and 19th-Century Mexico3. Case of Aguas Blancas4. U.S. Images of Mexico5. Dangerous Journeys6. Violence in Mexico's Cartel War7. Statism Defined8. When did the Mexican Revolution of 1910 end?
http://www.registrar.ucla.edu/schedule/detselect.aspx?termsel=12S&subareasel=HIST&idxcrs=0160Bhttp://www.registrar.ucla.edu/schedule/detselect.aspx?termsel=12S&subareasel=HIST&idxcrs=0160B


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E. Revolution in Mexico: Years of Upheaval, 1910-1940

SCHEDULE

1st Week: Reading, Discussion, and Topics: Please bring reader to class

Schema 6.0, to p. 36

Many Images of Mexico, Articles 1-2 and 7Book of Charts, through Chart A to G, Charts 1 to 2C, Charts 3C to 7A

Apr 3 Introduction, concepts, and cycles;Geographical and demographic factors (1521-2012).

Population: 1521 = 30 million, 1608 = 1 million, 1950 = 25 million, 2012 = 112 millionPBS Documentary: Mexico, 1910-40.

Apr 5 Aztec and Spanish Full Statism prior to and after 1521

Anti-State Movements (1810-1820) in which Creoles (Spaniards born in

New Spain) join with Mestizos (persons of mixed Spanish-IndigenousEthnicity) to seek Independence from Spain;

Statist Independence (1821-1824) maintains Spanish monopolies in power;

Chaotic shifts to Anti-Statism and Statism (1825-1855) sees Peninsulares (Spanishborn in Spain) expelled from Mexico (especially in mid-1820s to mid-1830s, driving

much of the intellectual and financial capital needed to prevent

economic chaos); in 1829 Mexico abolished slaveryin Texas 1830.Loss of State power over all lands and sub-soil rights (previously held by the

Crown of Spain before implicit deregulation at Independence in 1821);

Santa Annas loses, that is half of Mexicos territory to the USA in 1848; and, finallySanta Annas restoration in 1853 of State power overall lands and sub-soil rights gives

the Nation of Mexico some of the Statism lost when the Spanish Crown fell in the

New World.

2nd Week: Reading, Discussions, and Topics: Bring reader to class:Schema 6.0, pp 36-46;

Book of Charts, Charts H through I-3.

Apr 10 Rise of Active Statism (Partial State Central Power) under Jurez and Daz,1855-1882;

President Benito Jurez wins Mexicos Active State Constitution of 1857 to(a) breakup the power of the Church over credit and halfof Mexicos land, as well a(b) breakup of indigenous communal lands (ejidos)Jurez sees the Church and ejidopreventing the development of a free-market Mexico based on small/medium-sizedprivate land owners needed in Mexico (as in France, and the USA) for the success of

nation-building, but unfortunately he creates unproductive minifundia;

Jurez fights (a) War to implement the Constitution of 1857; and(b) War (1864-1867) against the French invasion to establish

Maximilian as Statist Emperor of Mexico;


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Jurezs Active Statism is victorious in Mexico City but countryside is not safe.

Apr 12 Porfirio Daz continues Jurez Active Statism, forging alliance with the rich privatesector to plan to build railroads throughout Mexico and a modern port at Veracruz;

.

Daz establishesorder throughout Mexico by deputizing bandits and limiting bureaucraticcorruption

3rd Week: Reading, Discussion, and Topics: Bring to class

Schema 6.0, pp 46-52;Book of Charts, Charts H through I-3 and 8 to 16Six Ideological Phases, pp 1-4

Apr 17

Dictator Porfirio Porfirio Daz (1876-1911) shifts toFull Statist Power in 1882;Role of the Cientficos(circle of scientifically-orientedtechnocraticadvisors to

Daz)such a group will emerge again in the 1990s and hold government

Daz uses Jurezs land laws but changes implementation to encourage plantation ahacienda agriculture for export of goods, thus returning government policy tosupport of latifundia; by 1910 he converts 32% of Mexicos land surface intolarge haciendas and plantations (see Chart 25-B)

He empowers U.S. railroad builders to link the country and to USA

(Compare Charts 15A and 15B)Daz helps haciendas to build railroad to ports

and also complete the reopening of mines and their railroads to the ports;Daz pays off the national debt, establishes the national Statistical Office;

He rules with an iron hand, alienating the middle and upper class who want tomove beyond social and economic power to political power;

Gap between rich and poor grows exponentially;

Francisco Madero writes book (1908) demanding political democracy;

Andrs Molina Enriquez publishes in 1909 his call to breakup

Dizs newly recreated haciendas in order to recreate ejidosintellectual

diagnoses ofMexicos Huge National Problems is underway and helps lay the basis

for the Revolution of 1910-1911 (See Chart 15C, which Molina only implicitlyidentifies)

Apr 19 Successes and failuresof Dazs Statism

4th Week: Reading, Discussions, and Topics: Bring to class

Schema 6.0. pp 52-63Book of Charts, Charts I-4 and 18A to DMexico Years of Upheaval, to page 120Six Ideological Phases, p 5 (The Violent Years)

Apr 24 Revolution led by Madero in North and threat by Zapata south of Mexico City(see Chart 18-B) caused collapse of Daz regime after 34 years in power
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technocracy_(bureaucratic)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technocracy_(bureaucratic)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technocracy_(bureaucratic)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technocracy_(bureaucratic)


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5Madero becomes President in November 1911 after his massive electoral victory;

but violence continues as regional strongmen seek to displace Madero (considered

weak, hardly the strong figure needed), and who is assassinated in February 1913 b

Victoriano Huerta, his chief of the Army who acts in collusion withU.S. Ambassador Henry Lane Wilson (no relation to President Wilson) to

protect private property.

Apr 26 Civil war 1913-1916 against Huerta is finally ended after Carranza is sworn in asPresident to overseethe signing of a new Active-State Constitution of 1917,which requires in Article 27 the breakup (again) of latifundios to re-create ejidosand private small/medium-land holdings as well as Central government control of

sub-soil mining, oil, and water wealth;

Other Constitutional provisions cover required lay education (Article 3);

Workers right to strike, minimum wages, safe conditions (Article 123); and

strong limits on the role of the Church (130).SeeMexico Years of Upheaval, pp 112-115.

Zapata is assassinated in 1919, Carranza in 1920, Villa in 1923

5th Week: Reading, Discussion, and Topics: Bring to classSchema 6.0, pp 63-69Book of Charts, Charts, 19A to 23B, 26C-D-EMexico Years of Upheaval, pp 121-180Six Ideological Phases, pp 5-6

May 1: Reading, Discussions, and Topics:

Generals Obregn [1920-19240 and Calles (1924-1928), become successive

Active StatePresidents of Mexico--they put down military revolts (1923, 1927, 1929) as well as holding at bayCatholic guerrillas fighting since 1926 in West Central Mexico the Cristero Waragainst (a) the national governments division of small/medium properties intoGodless communal ejidos; and (b) against Mexico Citys atheistic governmen

Calles takes on many challenges as he undertakes the building of Mexico by establishing

the Bank of Mexico to play the role of a Federal Reserve System, establishes the NatioRoad Commission, and establishes a Rural Education Program, etc. (see Charts 26C-

Before President-Elect Obregn can return to the presidency in 1928, he is assassinated.

Interim President Emilio Portes-Gil (Dec 1, 1928 to Feb. 4, 1930) not only successfulconducts the presidential election for the period 1930 to 1934, he accomplishes min 13 months than any four- or six-year president in Mexicos history.

To avoid any hint of conspiracy against Obregn, Calles had left for Europe andPortes-Gil has a free hand to found the Official Party of the Revolution (PNR-Partido Nacional Revolucionario) to bring mutual enemies into what he called th

Revolutionary Family that would share power rather than kill or be killed fo

power. PNR is organized around the countrys regional caudillos (Governors andmilitary chiefs).


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6Further, Portes establishes the University of Mexico as a unit autonomous from

the Mexican government, oversees passage of a new labor code, and signs anaccord with the Catholic Church to end the Cristero War (1926-1929) againstthe government.

Portes launches the fastest rate of distribution of hacienda lands to ejidos inMexican history. (Ejidos have a common area for all to use for ceremonies, schooling,

and a work area for agro/ranching, which may be worked collectively or divided intoindividual plots. Members of the ejido do not own any land, which is seen as communa

nature and, according to the Constitution of 1917 not subject to inheritance, sale, lease, reor be worked jointly with private land owners.)

The new Official Party candidate, Pascual Ortiz Rubio, has to be brought fromBrazil where he had been sent into golden exile as Ambassador of Mexico--thus

he does not understand the difficult situation into which he is, and is forced to

resign in favor of yet another Interim President Abelardo Rodrgueza former

Governor of Baja California who had been involved in the smugglingof alcohol and marijuana from Mexico into California (1923-1930)and then

taken his skills to the national level.

May 3: Calles returns from Europe to become the Jefe Mximo of the Revolution andto settle scores with his protg General Lzaro Crdenas, who as Governor

of the state of Michocn had ignored Calles demand from Europe to stop carrying ouPresident Portes-Gils orders to distribute huge amounts of lands into ejidos. Calles, liJurez, opposes ejido lands being held in the in the collective form outside the market

economythe form preferred by Portes-Gil and Lzaro Crdenas. Owing to a number

factors, however, Lzaro becomes the President of Mexico in 1934 and inaugurates th

shift to six-year presidential terms guided by Mexicos new Six-Year Plans to outdo

Russias Five-Year Plans.

6/th Week: Reading, Discussions, and Topics:

May 8 Review: where we are coming from in this course and where are we goingPBS Documentary: Mexico: 1940-1982

May 10 Mid-Term Exam through May 3

7th Week: Reading, Discussions, and Topics: Bring to Class:Schema 6.0, pp 69-89,Book of Charts, Charts, 26F to 33A

Mexico Years of Upheaval, pp 181-284Many Images of Mexico, Article 8Six Ideological Phases, pp 7-16

May 15 Lzaro Crdenas and Manuel Avila-Camacho Refine the Active State

A.Calles (who in 1934-1935 still sees himself as the Jefe Mximo) threatens toremove Lzaro from the Presidency of Mexico unless Lzaro stops theincreasingly rapid redistribution of land and water to benefit ejidos worked

collectively--not ejidos worked individually). Also Calles demands that Lzaro end

support of massive labor strikes against Calles the old CROM Labor Union headed

the corrupt Luis Morones (who always sees strikes as treasonously endangering


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national economic stability). Calles threat seals the fate of the now old

Revolutionary

power structure because Lzaro expels Calles and Morones from Mexico.

(May 15 Cont):

B.Lzaro reforms the PNR, changing its name to PRM (Partido de la RevolucinMexicana) into a corporativist political party (influenced by MussolinisScheme adapted for Mexico) controlled by 4 sectors ofunionized laborers:

i)peasants (favored by Lzarosmassive distribution of Mexicos hacienda-ownedinto ejidos), by the end of his six year presidency in 1940 Lzaro announcesan accumulated 13% of Mexicos land surface has beenredistributed into Ejido, 9% under his signature;

ii) factory workers (favored by being given real right to strike under their ownleaders, led by Vicente Lombardo Toledano);

iii) military;iv) popular workers ( including merchants, lawyers,

physicians, CPAs, teachers, etc.) whose union is the Popular Sectorof the PRM.

Private Big Business owners are excluded from the PRM but are given directaccess to the President of Mexico viaChambers of Commerce, Industry, etc.the Chambers advisethe President of Mexico(See Chart 33A)

C. Lzaro cancels sexual education to stop needless controversy about whatwas really education about personal hygiene, and he

D. strengthens his friendship with the Archbishop of Mexico, with whom he haddeveloped a cooperating relationship since their days together in thestate of Michocn (Lzaro was Governor (1928-1932), and the Bishop was

slated to become Archbishop (as they both moved up to national affairs

1933).

E. For the economy of Mexico: On the one hand Lzaro nationalizes the

foreign-owned oil and railroad industries, on the other hand, he instructs theMexican Treasury Department to invest in private industry (domestic and foreign)

and also to establish the Mexican National Economic Development Bank as well as

to lay the basis for Mexico Instituto Mexicano de Seguro Social.

Lzaro places the industries that he nationalizes into the Decentralized Sector ofGovernment to distinguish them from the Centralized Sector (see Chart 33-A).Decentralized agencies collect their own funding by provided direct services, for whic

there are paid directly. Congress knows little (if anything) about their activities.

The Central government continues to receive its funding from the Treasury Departme

which collects taxes and authorizes funding to Central agencies, such as the post officpolice. Congress monitors the Central agencies

F. Lzaro , who chooses Manuel Avila-Camacho (MAC) to succeed him as President, te

Mexico that land redistribution has been completed because 42% of the


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agriculturally employed population now have received ejidos (see Chart 24-B.)

Lzaro informs MAC that the ejido has failed to produce food for urban Mexico(which they cannot admit to the Nation);

Lzaro quietly authorizes the protection of large land holdings that supplyfood to citiesremaining haciendas and plantations can receive legal protection prevent their lands from being divided into ejidos;

Lzaro and MAC both secretly ask the USA forhelp in research to increase crop production; U.S.sVice President Henry A Wallace

asks the Rockefeller Foundation to help and it establishes inMexico its first center to improve world crop productiontheCenter to Improve Corn and Wheat (CIMMyT), which eventually winsWorld Prizes in recognition of his contributions, including the establishment

of the first global bank to preserve agricultural seeds

G. For the rigged presidential election of 1940, Lzaro facilitates registration of two

Parties that oppose the PRM:i. The PAN (Catholic Conservative Party is founded in 1939 to compete (but

does not win the Presidency of Mexico until 2000).ii. PRUN, the real losing opposition party that is owned by Juan Andreu

Almazn, who, after losing the presidency, does not lead a rebellion but in return

is allowed to develop the governments beach-front property in Acapulco.

Almazn establishs the basis for a new type of modern tourism, which begiattract Hollywood stars just as European tourism is ending with Hitlers expansion

of German bellicosity.

H. Manuel Avila-Camacho (MAC) becomes the PRMs President of Mexico(1940-1946)and follows Lzaros lead implicitly but is explicit when he announces to theNation that he is a believer in Catholicism. (Lzaro himself would never be such a

believer.)

I. MAC develops Mexicos first laws on the Urgent Need to Develop Mexico into aManufacturing power-house by officially launchingMexicos Industrial Revolution.

J. MAC signs a Mexico-U.S. agreement to supply agricultural laborers for U.Sfields (1942, renewed routinely though 1964, when this legal escape valve

has closed).

May 17: The Active State continues in power as the Official Partys Miguel Alemn-Valdsbecomes the President of Mexico (1946-1952)--Alemn undertakes the largest public works program since the era of Porfirio Da

He constructs skyscrapers, four-lane highways, dams, electrical grids for industry and

Consumers (for example, making air conditioning available in the tropics and thedesserts)but corruption also grows exponentially.

Alemn builds public housing and condos for the rising middle classes.


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9Alemn fathers a huge new (and centralized) campus in the south of Mexico City for

UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico).

Alemn funds an academic publication on Problems of Agricultural Development in Mexi

and encourages viewpoints by scholars who oppose the Official Party.

Most importantly, Alemn reforms the Official Party and changes its name from PR

PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institucional), which retains corporativism but eliminathe military sector. (The military is no longer seen as possibly seeking to overthrow tgovernment, the institutionality of which is now protected by the military.)

Alemn furthers joint U.S.-Mexico ventures to develop new and expand existing industrie

Miguel Alemn fathers the rise of the Mexican Economic Miracle with Mexico's streconomic performance continuing through the 1950s and 1960s, when GDP growth averaabout 7% overall and about 3% percent per capita. Consumer price inflation averages only

annually. Manufacturing remains the country's dominant growth sector, expanding 7%

annually and attracting major foreign investment.

By instituting a full-scale import-substitution program, Alemn stimulates output by boos

internal demand. The government raises import controls on consumer goods but relaxes th

on capital goods, which it purchases with international reserves accumulated during the wThe government spends heavily on infrastructure. By 1950 Mexico's road network expand

12,600 miles, of which some 8,200 are paved.

8th Week: Reading, Discussion, and Topics:Schema 6.0, pp 93-125,Six Ideological Phases, pp 17-23 (to Part VI),Many Images of Mexico, Article 5

Book of Charts, handouts

May 22: Two PRI Presidents continue Active State Policy: Adolfo Ruiz-Cortines (1952-195and Adolfo Lpez Mateos (1958-1964) keep the Mexican Economic Miracle on cou

Although ARC is colorless and stodgy, he realizes that a changing Mexico has to give

more importance to women and even incorporate them into the work force. The 1947advent of the first Sears in Mexico City had not only revolutionized the traditional

systems of commercialization and open exhibition of merchandise as well as the setting

of fixed and fair prices for shoppers, but with their clean and manicured new building,

Sears (a prestigious foreign company) has given young women a place they ccan

become a sales person without being denigratedby society as a being too daring,especially because Sears has set fixed prices and ended the traditional bargaining

system. Further, beginning in 1955, Sears begins to open its retail stores (also consideredto be fancy and wholesome) throughout Mexico. Young women flock to them to gain

respectable employment.

Sears also spurred the commercial revolution by offering credit to buyers, who

previously had to lay away goods and not gain access to them until the last payment

was made.

The rise of credit and acceptance of personal checks by the late 1950s offered a boon,

establishing the Commercial Revolution in Mexico that went hand-in-hand with the Indus

Revolutions expansion into consumer goods and opening the retail work force to women
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexico_Cityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexico_City


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(ARC also did what Lzaro Crdenas could notARC won in 1953 federal voting

rights for women (and the right to run for office), effective at the next federalelection for the national Congress1955. Times had indeed change since President

Lzaro Crdenas had to give in to fears that women might be unduly influenced by

the clergy and vote against the Official Party. At the indigenous level to this day,

women are generally denied the right to vote, which is reserved for males who

present the outside face of the family to the community.)

With regard to a major problem of the Mexican Economic Miracle, the share of imports suto licensing requirements rises 28 percent in 1956 to an average of more than 60 percent d

the 1960s and about 70 percent in the 1970sthis aspect of the miracle not only leads t

explosion in the scale of the bribery of federal officials, but it also causes smuggling to bea huge unofficial industry. Upper and middle classes find that they can finance a vacation

the USA from savings on their purchase of American household goods and clothing at low

compared to the high, tariff-protected cost of the same items in Mexicothis situation wi

continue until 1982.

Nevertheless, Mexican industry, which accounts for about 18% of GDP in 1940sees this ratio grow to 29% by 1970.

Agriculture declines from 23% of GDP in 1940 to 16% in 1970, a testimony to the Officia

Partys granting poor quality ejido lands in the form of minifundia that too often is conduc

only to subsistence survival where individuals eat up to 17 tortillas daily, no meat, fish,chicken, or eggs being available.

PRI Presidents ignore Lzaros declaration that land redistribution into ejidos has been

completed and continue to pulverize the land. By the end of the Adolfo Lpez Mateos (ALpresidency, an accumulated 27% of Mexicos land surface has been shifted back into ejid

As the agricultural share of GDP declines consistently, agricultural workers move to the Uor to Mexicos cities, where they see opportunities for better-paying jobs as well as greate

possibilities in education and advancement for themselves and their families. Educational

opportunities for peasant children continue to be minimal, at best.

ALM nationalized the foreign-owned electricity system, buying out the companies who

refused to extend service to isolated rural communities because of the high cost and low rareturn. The companies were happy to leave Mexico with a relatively high income from the

of a poorly maintained system.

With the Mexican government failing to raise wages to keep up inflation, workers see theurban union-negotiated salaries running far below a living wage, The situation is so dire

during the Mexican transition presidential transition of 1958, the unions reject their union

bosses who are tied into the government.

Thus union members seek to take advantage of the fact that the incoming President Adolf

Lpez-Mateos (ALM) is the first national leader to come from the Ministry of Labor (inst

of the Ministry of Government as had been usual).

Thinking that they now have a leader who will understand them, union members

demand wage increases even before ALM becomes President. However, the unions find

themselves facing ALMs ruthless Minister of Government, Gustavo Daz-Ordaz (GDO),


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11who forces the workers to launch a general strike. GDO has the strikers savagely

beaten (the ones he calls the lucky strikers), and unlucky strikers are arrested for year

tortured. GDO is leading the way to brutally authoritarian national government tosave the PRI.

May 24: Shift to Full Statism is led by 3 PRI Presidents, 1964-1982:Gustavo Daz-Ordaz (GDO, 1964-197o70);

Luis Echeverra-Alvarez (LEA, 1970-1976);Jos Lpez-Portillo (JOLOPO, 1976-1982).

A. As President, GDO officially launches in 1965 the Maquiladora" manufacturingindustry on Mexicos border with the USA in which foreign investment builds or

leases factories, imports raw materials, andpays taxes only on workers salaries aslong as the manufactured goods are exported. (With time Mexico, would

require/allow these factories to sell a share of their products in Mexico, and maquilas

would begin to move deep into Mexico.)

Although often exploitative of workers, wages and benefits are usually higher than

those of most workers in Mexico, and Maquilas seek to hire away the best workersfrom competing maquilas by paying slightly higher wages.

Maquiladora factories encompass a variety of industries including

electronics, transportation, textile, and machinery, among others.

Maquiladoras may be 100% foreign-owned. The use of Maquiladoras is an

example of off shoring. Other countries such as Hong Kong, Singapore,

Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and Germany (and by the 2000s in China,

Vietnam, etc.) have Maquiladoras as well, but those located in Mexico are

associated with companies from any country mainly seeking access to the

U.S. markets.

B. GDO offers the peasants tierra o plomo (titles for ejidos or the bullet)he seeks to surpass the high amounts of land redistribution by Lzaro Crdenas

and by Portes-Gil. By the end of the GDO presidency, an accumulated 34% ofMexicos land surface is in ejidos.

In spite of his seeing his generosity to peasants rewarded by loyalty, he seesprotest marches demanding social justice and an end to the corruption by official anunofficial rural police.

C. GDO reduces subsidies to professors and students and stops funding theirscholarly journals and is surprised when they begin to organize guerrilla networksagainst him and his henchman.

D.Secret Dirty War ensues, with many thousands of protestors killed, includinginnocent persons dying in collateral damage.

E.GDO and his Minister of Government Luis Echevera-Alvarez (LEA), proud thatMexico has been selected to be the first country in the Third World to host the

Olympics, reject protesters demands in 1968 for the PRI to call off the Olympic

Games in Mexico City and cancel the building of a metro (to divert those funds to he

poor peasants), and for the PRI to step down from powerno negotiation.


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In response, GDO and LEA trap many hundreds of protesters at the Plaza of Three

Cultures (Tlatelolco) to kill hundreds if not thousands, in the now infamous Massacreat that Plaza on the eve of the opening of the Olympics.

F.The implicit message to Mexicos protesters is: If you fight the government, you will killed.

G.LEA becomes President (1970-1976) and breaks the long pact between the privatesector and the PRI dating back to World War II and the post-war presidency ofAlemn. LEA decides that there is no reason to share profits with the private sectoris time to nationalize as much industry as possible, thus keeping profits for Mexico

and employing university graduates who had not been able to find work under GDO.The employment of thousands of former students in industries many did not

understand was costly and unproductive. Further, much of the new profits available

are swallowed by corruption under LEA and his successor in the Presidency, Jos

Lpez Portillo (JOLOPO).

In 1972 LEA nationalizes TELMEX, turning the act of making a telephone call into aKafka-like experience. Service is supposed to improve, but it enters into a state of ne

collapse as LEAs Security Agency make it part of a Cold War campaign. In trying tobug the phones ofso many dangerous people, many main switches stopped

working properly.

H. To pay for the nationalization of private property, LEA and GDO abandon any seriousattempt to control inflation, and indeed claim that inflation is healthy.

I. LEA knows that he does not have support of many young workers, so undertakes thedistribution of land to ejidos with the goal of surpassing the high distribution records

of Lrzaro Cardenas and Emilio Portes-Gil as well as the effort of GDO.

LEAs act is in defiance of what is now well known to the PRIthe ejidos have failed

to produce food on what is now ever more eroded land and further distribution is

increasing more counterproductive than even GDOs team had thought possible.

When LEA leaves office in 1976, an accumulated 40% of Mexicos land surface

has been shifted into ejidos (see Chart 25-B)

J. LEA launches into world politics, and criticizes Israel for its Zionist policiesin afallout, the Jewish Community in the USA organizes a boycott of tourism to Mexico

and LEA has to apologize.

K.LEA loses his grasp on reality when he orders the June 10, 1971, hard-line PRI thugsto attack students protesting about the national education budget. Dozens are killed inMexico City (either on the street or in hospitals where the wounded are taken). Thisincident becomes known as theCorpus Christi Massacrefor the feast day on which it

took place, and also as the "Falcon Strike"-- the special police unit involved was calle

Los Halcones ("The Falcons").

[This incident becomes prominent again in the 2001-2005 period when LEA is

charged with genocide by President Foxs Special Prosecutor, who argues that th

charges have not surpassed the 30-year statute of limitations and in any case,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpus_Christi_Massacrehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpus_Christi_Massacrehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpus_Christi_Massacrehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corpus_Christi_Massacre


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13Mexico has signed the UN Convention that ends all the statute of limitations

on genocide, thus making LEA vulnerable to trial for the 1968 massacre. (GDO

had died in 1979, thus never charged with genocide). The Mexican Supreme Court rules in 2005 that the 30 years had expired and

that the 2002 Convention could not be applied retroactively to LEA. Humiliated

and in fear of retribution by the families of his victims, since 2001 LEA lives

under self-imposed seclusion at homein effect self-imposed house arrest.

L.Protesters who decide not to work for/with the government, join guerrillas in urban aswell as urban cells, which justify LEAs decision to expand the Secret Dirty War

M.Ironically, LEA had set out to make a Legal Revolution(see Schema 6.0. p. 120).

9th Week: Reading, Discussions, and Topics: Bring readers to class

Schema 6.0, pp 125-147,Six Ideological Phases, pp 23-27

Many Images of Mexico, Article 4Book of Charts, Charts

May 29

Jos Lpez Portillo (JOLOPO) expands Full Statism.

He is the God President intent on restoring Aztec Greatness. With loans flowing into Mexico

to develop new oil deposits under LEA, Mexico sees the dramatic rise in value of its exports

caused by two world energy crises: (a) the Yom Kippur War-Arab Oil Embargo of the USA in1973-1974, and (b) and the Iraq-Iran War beginning in 1979-1980. These crises cause world oil

prices to quintuple in the 1970s, but Mexico loses much of the suddeninflux of oil money, which is wasted in the governments bureaucratic bungling and high levelsof corruption.

JOLOPO expands s the rate at which private companies are nationalized and loses count of what iowns wholly or partially. New Decentralized Agencies on their own authority borrow money

abroad, receiving loans from foreign entities that wrongly believe are guaranteed by the Mexican

Treasury. Unfortunately, the Treasury does not even know about the borrowing until the worldeconomic crisis of 1982 and collapse of oil prices causes the Central government to recentralize

borrowing authority to face austerity, but afterhe nationalizes the major private banks (claiming

they aided capital flight from Mexicos anarchical fisa; situation and inflationary economic

instability) and leaves office in 1982 at the end of his six years of printing ever more useless peso

JOLOPOs passion for the pompous and symbolic rather than practical investment leads Mexico

into a morass of debt and near bankruptcy. Only a bridge-loan of nearly $2 billion dollarsfacilitated by the U.S. Treasury saves Mexico from economic collapse in 1982. (The USA hasprovided temporary bailouts, some quietly or confidentially, to Mexico in 1976, 1982, 1988, 1994

and 2008. (Events to 1994 are treated by Lee Hoskins and James W. Coons, Mexico Policy

Failure,, Cato Policy Analysis No. 243, Oct 10, 1995).

In the meantime, to JALOPO is the first Mexican President to actively recognize the danger

emerging from the rise of Narcotraficantes. In 1975 he ordered troops into action under code nam

Operation Condor to break the south-north supply chain to the USA from Sinaloa, Durango, and


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14Chihuahua where the Mexican military, always the most important eradication force, had to

fight not only the increase of illegal crops but also a growing number of armed peasants and

smugglers, DEA statistics suggest that Mexicans are supplying around 87 percent of the heroinand nearly 95 % of the marijuana available in the United States market, according to Mara Celia

Toro, who has studied the role of the DEA in Mexico.

JALOPO ends the Dirty War by 1978, but does not win credit because that War is a

secret one.

He is otherwise infamous for his mistresses and for having sponsored "rampant corruption,""excessive overseas borrowing," galloping inflation, policies leading to devaluation of the peso. H

announces in 1981: "I will defend the peso like a dog!" It earned him the nickname 'El perro' (The

dog) and having people barking at him.

By 1982 the cumulative action of the vicious GDO, the two-faced LEA, and erratic JALOPO lead

to Mexicos crash of state capitalism.

May 31 Active Statism is crafted by Virtual President (1983-1988) and President (1983-1994).

Carlos Salinas de Gortari sets the framework for the three Presidents who follow him:

Ernesto Zedillo, 1994-2000;Vicente Fox, 2000-2006;Felipe Caldern, 2006-2012

The myth of presidential succession in 1982: Purportedly JALOPO had two

candidates to succeed him. A political choice if those skills were needed and a

financial/administrator type of leader if the economic factors were imploding.

Clearly the later was needed and MMH won the nod not so much from JALOPO

but from most of the PRI Family who knew that CSG, chief advisor to MMH,would be the de facto President (1983-1988) and would then assume thePresidency in his own right (1988-1994).

Obviously MMH was out-of-his-depth and only in the presidential game becausehe has CSG behind him. It is CSG, the young political economist with a

doctorate from Harvard University who can save the Official Party.

THE MMH / SALINAS PRESIDENCY (1983-1988)

MMH and CSG agree that CSG should move quickly to containthe damaged economic scene left by the mentally unstable JALOPO. But the

question how to rapidly contain inflation when the banking system has just

been nationalized and put in the hands of JALOPOs cronies.

.MMH/CSG have to print more money and wait for pesos value to plummet,

but at least they meet the government payroll as well as pay the subsidies

needed to keep the poor afloat.

The next step is to rely on Ernesto Zedillo, the young doctorate from Yale

University who immediately saves the capitalist classes in Mexico by taking control

Zedillo negotiate the amount and timing of payments leaving Mexico.


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15

In the meantime, major earthquake shocks Mexico City in 1985, killing up to

10,000 persons and cutting most communications in Mexicoall the telephone trunk lines go directly to Mexico City and then out to the provinces,

but Mexico City lines are out, so the lesson is learned about the dangers of extreme

centralization.

Further, CSG (who is officially Minister of Planning and Budget) is laying thebasis in 1985 to join the U.S.-Canadian Free Trade Agreement (FTA), the

negotiations lead to the signing of the agreement in 1988.

Because many Mexican intellectuals are still infected by the idea that Mexicos State Capita

and anti-foreign business bias can be resuscitated,

CSGs strategy is take debate to the international level by having Mexico join the General

Agreement on Trade and Tariffs, membership in which is required to join into FTAs.

The U.S.-Canada FTA (which Mexico joins in 1994) contains the principles that will guideMexico as it looks beyond the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to sign wit

other regions such as Mexico-European Union. These principles at the outset are to:

eliminate barriers to trade in goods and services between Canada and theUnited States;

facilitate conditions of fair competition within the free-trade area establishedby the Agreement;

significantly liberalize conditions for investment within that free-trade area; establish effective procedures for the joint administration of the Agreement

and the resolution of disputes;

lay the foundation for further bilateral and multilateral cooperation toexpand and enhance the benefits of the Agreement.

In the political sphere, MMHs own input to policy is to drive the PRDs Democratic Current

out of the Official Party, alienating the Currents leaders Cuauhtmoc Crdenas (the son ofLzaro), and Porfirio Muoz-Ledo, who areboth critical of CSGs approach to internationaleconomic relations and the opening of the Mexican economy.

Cuauhtmoc wins the presidential election of 1988, but does not demand a full recount after the

PRI/government computers crash before all the voting can be tallied. Cuauhtmoc meets secretly

with CSG and then over the objections of his group lets the partial vote stand. He goes on to

found in 1989 the Statist-oriented PRD (Partido Revolucionario Democrtico). Independentanalysis of how the full presidential vote would have come out in 1988 favors Cuauhtmoc, who

bides his time and delivers a major defeat to the PRI when he wins the Mayorship of MexicoCity, 1997-2000.

THE SALINAS PRESIDENCY, 1988-1994

In the meantime, with the PRD wrapped up in urban affairs, in 1992 President Salinas sponsorsand wins a change to the Constitution of 1917.

Indeed, in taking up again-Juarezs nineteenth-century project to give titles to the holders of

ejido land, CSGs 1992 Constitutional Amendmentprovides for granting ownership of title to


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16the land currently being worked by a family, thus ending complete control over the land that

had been held by Communal Councils. Further, this new law states that although land

distribution to Ejidos could continue, it does not require it, effectively ending land redistributionthat creates counterproductive minifundia. Although CSG hopes that the communal farmers will

begin to sell their land and capitalize their years of investment, in reality there are few buyers for

eroded lands. Where the Amendment is more successful is in authorizing the holders of the new

individual titles to rent, lease, or join their lands to the private farming sector, which had hitherto

been illegal. (See Schema 6.0, pp. 139-142)

With regard to the money losing Decentralized Industries owned by the government, CSGconducted audits to find out exactly what the government owns and how to privatize up to 1,000

firms-- all of which had been losing huge amounts of money, especially under the Statist

Presidents. (For major sales of State owned companies such as truck and cigarette manufacturingplants and milk processing plants (Schema 6.0, pp. 137-142).

GSG sale of the TELMEX in 1990 gives the telephone monopoly to Carlos Slim in a

questionable deal that will make Slim the worlds richest man and the one who charges thehighest telephone rates on the globe.

In 1992, GSG re-privatizes the banking system nationalized in 1998. While it

belonged to the nation, it fell ten years behind the process of modern changes to private banksaround the world.

Salinas makes friends with those who were the Official Partys old opponents. Immediately aftertaking office as President in 1998, herecognizes and attends the inauguration in Baja Californiaof Ernesto Ruffo-Appel, the first elected opposition state governora leader of the PAN.

In 1992 CSG negotiates a change in the Constitution to give the clergy the right to vote, deniedsince 1917.

To help the poor, as promised in his own presidential campaign, he establishes the National

Solidarity Program (PRONASOL) to implement his political philosophy of Social Liberalismin 1988, immediately after taking office in December 1988.

Salinas also opens FTA talks with the USA and Canada so that Mexico joins NAFTA

on January 1, 1994, the date on which Subcomandante Marcos declares war in Chiapas to stop

NAFTAtoo late. In any case, Marcos has been in the jungles of Chiapas advocating a Maoisttype revolution for Mexicos Indigenous people since 1983. The war quickly ends

when Salinas halts military attacks and seals Marcos into a sizeable portion of the state.

Marcos is pleased with has new base of community development that is visited by foreign

sympathizers from around the world.

Others problems during Salinas final year in the presidency this year of 1994 are not so easily

resolved, especially the assassination of Luis Donaldo Colosio, the PRIs official candidate tosucceed CSG.

The only leading members of the PRI not in government (and not subject to having had to leave

government) is Colosios campaign managerErnesto Zedillo, who is relatively unknown inmuch of Mexico.

Further, the Secretary General of the PRI is assassinated amid rumors of conspiracies and

speculation that GSG s brother Ral Salinas is attending parties at isolated ranches owned by


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17narcotrafficantes. Too there is concern about possible devaluation of the peso owing to

Mexicos deepening deficit in Mexicos balance ofpayments.

Despite all these problems, Zedillo wins the presidential election against Cuauhtmoc Crdenas

who is seen again as a dour candidate and out of touch with how to reach millions of voters via

modern mediathe fact that Cuauhtmoc had given up even on a sample vote recount in 1988

did not help his image as a fighter, and he placed third after the equally dour PAN candidate

Diego Fernandez de Cevallos

10th Week: Reading, Discussions, and Topics:Schema 6.0, pp. 147 to end ofSchema 6.0Many Images of Mexico, Articles 3 and 6

Book of Charts, Charts

Jun 5 Presidencies of the PRIs ZediIllo (1994-2000) and the PANs Vicente Fox,who continue the Salinas model of the Active State. Both expand social programs

and sign FTAs around the world to make Mexico a leader in these realms.

Zedillos big problem involved his naming to his cabinet fine people, but most tothe wrong jobs. The new Finance Minister fires all the experts at the Treasury notrealizing that the levers of power worked counter-intuitively and there isno expert left to point out the accounts where funds are stashed as part of statesecrets. Needless to say, this Minister thinks that his predecessors habit of callingdifferent bankers in New York City every day to stay in reassuring touch that allis well was demeaning to a possible future President ofMexico. When theMinister calls a meeting of Mexican bankers to all agree that there can be nodevaluation, to those in attendance that means, inadvertently, get all availablecash into dollars because a devaluation is coming. After these Errors ofDecember 1994, the first month of the new presidency, that Minister not only lost

his job at Treasury; he lost his road to the presidency.

That Bill Clinton send Zedillo a bailout guarantee is better than any transfer ofcash, and the financial situation stabilizes, but the situation remains difficult forthe first three years.

In the meantime, the election of 2000 is coming close, and the influential PRDleader Porfirio Muoz Ledo, who had been Zedillos professor in earlier yearsurges Zedillo to restructure the Instituto Federal Electoral by giving up thegovernments chair of that oversees the election. Since the PRI controlled the

government and the government names the Electoral Commission, Muoz Ledo

discusses different options. Instead of the President of Mexico appointing the chairand members of the Electoral Commission, why not have the Congress selecthighly respectable independent citizen who could gain the trust of all parties inCongress.

Zedillo agreed, and the change is made that means an election that is not rigged atthe outset in favor of the government in power. On July 6, as the votes werecounted, many observers worry that the PRI must have a final card to play andwin, but that does not happen. The vigorous Vicente Fox wins and brings downthe PRI after 71 years in power.


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18

The PRI candidate appear exhausted during the election when he appears onstage with Fox. Cuauhtmoc looks dour for the third time, and he retires from hisruns for the Presidency.

The Fox presidency is notable for his opening the States Secret Archives to seewhat really happened at the Plaza of Three Cultures back in 1968GDO andLEA gave order to trap the protester demanding ouster of the PRI fro power,

and make the protesters appear to be guilty.

With this new information, Fox appoints the Special Prosecutor to investigate alsocharges of genocide dating back to 1971, as we have seen.

Fox also established Seguro Popular so that the poor who have never paid into theSocial Security System can be covered like those who have. This placesextraordinary pressure on Social Security hospitals and clinics so that the middleclasses turn to private doctors, accepting the reality that the wait is not worth thetime.

The Instituto Federal Electoral mobilizes and trains 1 million citizens to count thevotes in front of the representative of all political parties

The election officials declare the PANs Felipe Caldern the winnerby 0.6% ofthe vote. The loser Manuel Andrs Lpez-Obrador demand and receives a recountof the 10 most important districts where he suspects voter fraud, the percentageremain the same. Nevertheless, Lpez-Obrador shuts down the Paseo de laReforma to cut the city in half for months, wasting much of the credibility comingforward to the Mexican Presidential Elections in July 2012, where he is again thePRD candidate for he leftist coalition.

Jun 7 Calderon Presidency (2006-2012) and War on Narcotraficantes

As Caldern approaches the end of his six year term in December, he is fighting a DrWar with Narcotraficantes who are warring among themselves as well as with theGovernment. Former President Zedillo and Fox have joined with former President iSouth and Central America to decriminalize drugs to eliminate the profit while offermedical treatment to addicts and, hopefully, stopping the Mexican death toll at abouthe 50,000 where it now stands. Calderon helps more Mexicans to get health insuraduring his term in office. (Financial Times video of F.C.s interview.

Finals Week:

June 11 Monday: Final Exam 11:30am-2:30pm

Copyrighted Dr Olga Lazin, 2012

dr olga lazin-andrei history 16, syllabspring,3_11_12

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