* De la Madrid, born 1934, died in Mexico
* 1982-1988 term marked by earthquake, economic crisis
MEXICO CITY, April 1 (Reuters) – Former Mexican President
Miguel de la Madrid, who struggled to overcome one of the
country’s worst economic crises and a devastating earthquake in
the 1980s, died on Sunday at the age of 77.
A stalwart of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI),
Mexico’s ruling party for most of the 20th century, de la Madrid
broke with PRI orthodoxy by backing market-friendly reforms but
still proved unable to tame surging unemployment and
triple-digit inflation during his six-year term from 1982 to
1988.
De la Madrid died of complications resulting from pulmonary
emphysema, a spokesman for the PRI said.
Prior to assuming the presidency, the Harvard-educated de la
Madrid worked stints as a law professor, in the finance
ministry, and as a technocrat with the state-owned oil company
Pemex. He then served as budget and planning minister under his
mentor and predecessor, President Jose Lopez Portillo.
President Felipe Calderon, who belongs to the conservative
National Action Party (PAN) that replaced the PRI in power, on
Sunday acknowledged the former leader’s services to Mexico.
“He faced difficult challenges during his term,” Calderon
wrote on his Twitter account. “Rest in peace.”
In 1985, de la Madrid was forced to contend with the
aftermath of a magnitude 8.1 earthquake, a catastrophe that
resulted in the death of more than 10,000 Mexicans and was an
enormous setback for the nation’s already teetering economy. It
also dented de la Madrid’s popularity after he initially
rejected international aid.
“This period was a gray chapter in the modern history of
Mexico mostly due to the economic convulsions of the time,” said
Ricardo Espinoza, a political scientist at the Autonomous
Metropolitan University in Mexico City.
Unlike his predecessors, the conservative de la Madrid
promoted foreign investment, the reduction of tariffs and the
privatization of hundreds of previously state-owned industries.
In the final years of his term, sinking oil prices and
mounting public debt prompted de la Madrid to impose
controversial austerity measures, including thousands of public
sector layoffs and wage freezes. These decisions would later be
blamed for contributing to the PRI’s weaker position leading
into the widely disputed presidential election of 1988.
Yet, that same election also ushered in a new era of
expanded power for Mexico’s political opposition, a development
largely attributed to discontent with the 40 percent reduction
in inflation-adjusted wages since he assumed power in 1982.
In his final address to Mexico’s congress, amid jeers and
unprecedented booing from opposition legislators, de la Madrid
himself signaled a historic shift away from an all-powerful
Mexican presidency.
“I do not believe we can be saved by charisma, nor can we
operate in a power vacuum. I believe in institutional leadership
and a democratic presidency,” he said. “The solitary acts of one
man, the president of the republic, do not determine the destiny
of Mexico.”
In a 2009 interview with Mexican journalist Carmen
Aristegui, de la Madrid famously accused his handpicked
successor, Carlos Salinas de Gortari, of fostering corruption
and stealing public funds. But in a statement issued hours after
the interview, he recanted the accusations, citing poor health.
(Reporting by Manuel Rueda, Tomas Sarmiento and Michael
O’Boyle; Editing by Eric Beech)
