Has the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) really changed from its authoritarian past or is it just adopting young, handsome faces to mask its true visage?
Amidst criticism of the PRI’s undemocratic selection process, the PRI’s newly appointed candidate for governor of Jalisco has denied he was hand-picked by the party leadership. Following a day of drawn-out discussions on January 5, the PRI named Jorge Aristoteles Sandoval Diaz, the 35-year-old mayor of Guadalajara, as its candidate in the July 1 election.
Selected ahead of six other hopefuls, who have now agreed to support his campaign, Sandoval was chosen in a meeting of the PRI’s National Executive Committee (CEN) headed by party president Pedro Joaquin Coldwell, at the national headquarters in Mexico City.
This week Sandoval rejected claims that his appointment was a “dedazo,” the Spanish term for when the party elite point the finger in approval at a given candidate, in lieu of any democratic nomination process. The PRI grew notorious for this practice during its 71-year unbroken reign, with each president essentially hand-picking his successor.
“It was not a ‘dedazo.’ The ‘dedazo’ is imposed, this was an agreement by mutual consent,” explained Sandoval, in response to speculation over his appointment. Without giving further details, the mayor alluded to “scientific methods, analysis, debate, arguments, counter arguments, and consensus” during the behind-closed-doors meeting.
Yet Sandoval’s appointment has provoked widespread skepticism over whether the PRI has changed from the days of old. Certainly, the PRI’s antiquated selection process contrasts with those of its political rivals.
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