Thursday, September 1, 1988/The Battalion/Page 13
President Madrid to deliver final message
MEXICO CITY (AP) — President
Miguel de la Madrid goes before his
countrymen today to deliver a final
state or the nation message on a term
beset by economic problems he man
aged to control while presiding over
important political changes.
When de la Madrid came to
power on Dec. 1, 1982, this nation
was nearly bankrupt following a col
lapse in oil prices. Inflation was ram
pant and the peso was plunging in
value.
De la Madrid feels his “biggest ac
complishment was keeping the
country from going bankrupt while
maintaining the social order,” said a
close advisor who demanded ano
nymity. “His frustration was not be
ing able to do the things he would
have liked because of the economic
limitations.”
De la Madrid, a Harvard-trained
economist, renegotiated a foreign
debt that now stands at $104 billion
while resisting pressure for a mora
torium on payments. His adminis
tration took steps to reduce the role
of the state in the economy, al
though many large industries, such
as petroleum and banking, remain
nationalized.
Some of the steps were painful,
and the peso plunge cost Mexican
consumers about 50 percent of their
buying power during de la Madrid’s
six-year term.
But it was de la Madrid’s efforts to
reform a corrupt political system
that produced Mexico’s most demo
cratic summer since the ruling Insti
tutional Revolutionary Party gained
power in 1929.
One hundred seats to be divided
in proportion to the national vote
were added to the lower house of the
legislature, giving the opposition an
opportunity to win a larger role. Op
position candidates were permitted
to win local elections, especially in
the north
The PRI itself instituted primaries
on the municipal level, although a
disagreement about presidential pri
maries was one factor in a split that
helped the left-wing opposition,
which grouped itself as the Demo
cratic Front.
The result was a July 6 presi
dential election in which the opposi
tion won nearly 50 per cent of the
popular vote and a forceful voice in
Congress. However, the election was
marred as the opposition claimed
that the PRI maintained its grip on
power only through massive fraud.
A long wrangle in the Chamber of
Deputies ended with the PRI taking
260 seats and a divided opposition
240 — 139 for the leftist Front and
101 for the rightist National Action
Party. The left also won four of 64
seats in the Senate — the first time
the PRI has ever lost Senate seats.
De la Madrid downplayed Mexi
co’s high profile role in Central
America, avoiding open friction with
the United States over conflicts in
Nicaragua and El Salvador while
working for regional solutions.
He had a good working
relationship with President Reagan,
and argued that Mexico could not be
solely responsible for stopping drug
trafficking. De la Madrid said the
drug problem starts at the consumer
level in the United States.
De la Madrid prepared the way
economically for his chosen succes
sor, Carlos Salinas de Gortari, who
was largely responsible for the re
gime’s economic measures as de la
Madrid’s Planning and Budget se-
cretgary.
In addition to loosening tight state
control of the economy, de la Ma
drid brought Mexico into the Gen
eral Agreement in Trade and Tar
iffs (GATT) to force Mexican
industralists to compete abroad and
domestically.
When inflation hit nearly 150 per
cent in 1987, de la Madrid united
government and private business in
a belt-tightening economic solidarity
pact that helped reduce inflation to
43 per cent in the first six months of
1988. Government figures for Au
gust show a rate of below 1 percent.
De la Madrid has suffered harsh
criticism from both left and right.
Leftist presidential candidate
Cuauhtemoc Cardenas called for a
moratorium on debt payments, say
ing that they are hobbling economic
development. The National Action
Party wants economic privatization
to go farther, faster.
The political reforms changed the
political structure of this country
and shook the PRI. Salinas, who won
with the lowest percentage ever for a
PRI presidential candidate, said af
ter the election that “the era of the
one-party rule is over.”
Referring to the drop in popular
support, de la Madrid admitted
Tuesday to a group of labor leaders
that the party had made mistakes.
But he added, “There is no threat
to the system. We will regroup, will
will fight more strongly. We are
strongly enough to keep reactiona
ries from the left or the right to take
power away from the Mexicn Revo
lution.”
Protestant denominations celebrate after 40 years
NEW YORK (AP) — “We intend to stay
together.’ So declared representatives of
147 mostly North American and West Euro
pean Protestant denominations 40 years
ag °\
Christ has made us his own, and he is
not divided, said that 1948 founding as
sembly of the World Council of Churches
in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. “In seek
ing him we find one another.”
Their pact has grown to include 307 de
nominations of virtually all Christian tradi
tions of every race and continenttotaling
more than 400 million members.
Its formation amid the ruins of World
War II raised a worldwide landmark in the
cause of Christian unity. “It is the great new
fact of our time,” said the late Archbishop
of Canterbury William Temple.
That mid-century coming together of
Christians signalled a reversal of more than
400 years of church fragmentation, antago
nism and rivalry in the West and 1,000
years of uncommunicative separation from
churches of the East.
Results have “overcome centuries of in
difference and even hatred among Chris
tians,” affirming that “we are one people,”
says the Rev. Emilio Castro, council general
secretary.
Now actively allied, they jointly probe
their differences, dissolving mutual miscon
ceptions and prejudices, contributing to
one another’s insights, working in part
nership on many fronts.
Marking the council’s birthday, old-
timers and newcomers to the cause gath
ered Aug. 20-21 in Amsterdam, site of the
founding asembly, to recall that pivotal
event and eye its future.
“ I he conviction that unity is real, and di
vision unreal, steadily grows... over the 40
years,” says the Rev. John Deschner, mod-
eia }°. r cou ncil’s doctrinal commission
on faith and order.
Deschner, a United Methodist theologian
of Dallas, says that “beneath the dis-
agreements we find an agreement in a unity
which drew us together and will not let us
separate.”
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Over 135 student organizations, student
services, and academic colleges will be
answering questions and • giving out
information and how you can make this
semester one to remember!
Visit the MSC Council Table during Open House and
enter to win two tickets to the A&M - t.u. game!!!!
Sunday - September 4, 1988
4 p.m. - 8 p.m.
Memorial Student Center
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