Customer Reviews

Opening Mexico: The Making of a Democracy

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Having lived in Mexico for 38 years, I would say that this THE definitive work. Another reviewer insists on looking at only the negative side of what happens in Mexico, as do so many Mexicans themselves. However, there is a positive side - a very positive side. Things are happening, and Mexico is, indeed, opening to a whole new way of life. No, it is not happening in a single day, but what does?
I arrived in 1966. I have witnessed all the changes that Preston and Dillon depict in their book. It is a true picture of those events - and a pretty gutsy one at that.
I once heard Julia Preston speak at the school where I am working. I was impressed at her intelligence and how knowlegeable she was. She was one of the most open-minded and objective Americans I had ever heard on the subject of this country. And that is exactly what I saw in her book.
I don't wear a hat, but, if I did, it would certainly be off to these journalists who have done such a fine job.

This is an excellent book on several counts. First it serves as a good primer for anyone wanting to learn about our neighbors to the south. Second it is a sobering analysis of the factors that need to be in place to even get to an imperfect democracy. Finally it is a remarkable blow by blow of how a hardy band of idealists, intellectuals and politicos brought down the "perfect dictatorship".

Opening Mexico takes us from the student rebellion of 1968 to the presidential election of 2000. Along the way we meet unrepentant PRI dinosaurs who almost seem to relish stealing elections and their outnumbered and outmatched opponents. Hovering in the background is Vincente Fox who does the impossible, taking over Los Pinos - the presidential residence. While Fox did the impossible it is his predecessor Zedillo, the accidental president, who emerges as one of the greatest heroes of the book. Zedillo was named his party's candidate for the presidency only after the previous candidate was gunned. Constitutional peculiarities practically forced Carlos Salinas to name Zedillo as the PRI candidate. Zedillo a dour technocrat would ultimately challenge the very system that promoted him by turning on his benefactor and forcing his party to face to accept its defeat.

Read "Opening Mexico" book if you love Mexico, enjoy politics, are inspired by the quest for freedom or enjoy a good thriller.

I also recommend "Bordering on Chaos" by Andres Oppenheimer. "Opening Mexico" is in many ways a sequel to Oppenheimer's work. "Bordering on Chaos" closes with the Mexican meltdown of 1994 and does an exceptional job recounting the efforts of the dinosaurs to manipulate the political process. It is a gripping narrative.

This is the first and only account of the amazing revolution in Mexican politics that took place when Vicente Fox was elected. For more then 70 years Mexico was dominated by the PRI(Institutional revolutionary Party) which made Mexico basically a one-party state. But beginning in the 1990s this book tells the fascinating story of the surprise election results that almost brought the PRD socialists to power. Then subsequent chapters detail the Colosio assassination and the Salinas/Zedillo presidencies, culminating in the Fox campaign and the rise of the PAN party.

Although this book will appeal mostly to those with some knowledge of Latin American politics and Mexican affairs it is also of interest to any American who seeks more knowledge of our southern naeighboor. This is a much needed contribution to the dirth of scholarship on modern Mexican politics.

Seth J. Frantzman

Though you get a good and brief Mexican history lesson at the get-go, the majority of this well-written and deeply researched book by two Pulitzer Prize winners from the New York Times is devoted to the past half-century or so.

It's a thriller, a real-life cliff-hanger that includes bald-headed generalissimos in bed with drug-dealers, backroom dealings, sex, brutality, murder, kidnappings, ear-slicings, corruption up the kazoo, "revolutionary" baloney, all of which was brought to us by the PRI, the ham-fisted political party that ruled Mexico craftily for seven decades until the whole game came unglued in the late 1990s, landing opposition leader Vicente Fox in the president's chair in 2000.

The PRI overdid it, and got their comeuppance, at last.

This book is available in both English and Spanish. I find it odd that the chapter entitled "From Disorder to Despotism" is missing from the Spanish version, published in, you guessed it, Mexico. Plus, the Spanish version has no photos! I like to see what my goons look like.

This book is a must-read for anybody interested in this messy land. I live in Mexico, and could hardly put the dang thing down.

This is an essential reading to understand the presidential polling results of July 2, 2000, i.e., the first time in almost 70 years a non-official party candidate reached the Mexican Presidency. Notwithstanding the authors ignore the influence of the rail workers' and GP's strikes of 1958 and 1964, respectively, the book details objectively the events that took place between 1968 and 2000, which transforms -very slowly, indeed- the perception of the Mexican middle class, basically, giving democracy a chance. I'm afraid the epilogue, yet to be written, will not be a happy one.

Hats off to the team of Dillon and Preston who give us a bird's eye view of one of the most interesting times in modern history, not only in Mexican or Latin American history. The authors do a tremendous job of communicating the unprecedented and complicated events leading up to the election of Vicente Fox. But the added value is in their appreciation of the historical and cultural context in which many of the otherwise well-known facts occurred. I was working in Mexico also during this period. Given the limited coverage in both Mexico and the US of so much of what happened - in the former due to the one-sided view of the media and in the latter due to the wrongheaded disregard in the US for events that occur in our not so distant neighbor - I was reading many of the details for the first time.

"Opening Mexico" will stand as a more than worthy attempt to introduce a larger audience to the importance of these events to both the US and to Mexico, and to frame discourse on critical political changes to come in both countries over the next few years.

"Opening Mexico" is a timely reminder of the importance of Mexico to foreign policy makers and citizens of the United States. It is also another chronicle reminding the reader of the great political progress made in Mexico during the last decade. This political progress still sits upon uncertain foundations.

This book is an important contribution to the study of Mexico since the revolution, spanning the post-Diaz years to the mid-point of the Fox presidency. Since such a broad span of history is captured in the 500+ pages of this book it is easy to understand that its content may be brief in depth and comprehensive in scope.

The reader should supplement this book with other texts dealing with the same great changes that took place in Mexico in the past decade. "Mexico: A Biography of Power" by Enrique Krauze offers a broader evaluation of Mexican history sexenio-by-sexenio going back to the revolution. "Bordering on Chaos by Andres Oppenheimer" explores in some greater detail some of the high drama in the events of the crucial 1993-1995 time frame. "La Herencia" by Jorge Castaneda also discusses in greater detail the political and historical changes than "Opening Mexico" (it may not be available in English). Another possibility would be to read Carlos Salinas de Gortari's book (I have not) to gain his view of events.

"Opening Mexico" offers the reader some new insights not found in the previously mentioned texts. The inner sanctums of the 1988 election are depicted to a level of detail I have not read before. "Opening Mexico" also covers the careers of several key figures in Mexico who have brought about, or attempted to thwart, change.

The writers wrote what they saw; this could explain some of the gaps in "Opening Mexico." One may fill these gaps by reading the other books I recommend. Though by reading this book, one will read much of the same content covering events such as the Zapatista revolution or the Colosio assasination. In the end, "Opening Mexico" is a very worthy contribution on the recent history of Mexico and should be part of the library of any serious observer of Mexico.

OPENING MEXICO by Preston and Dillon is a 592 page book, having a dozen black and white photographs (1/3rd page), and printed on inexpensive off-white paper. The book concerns the transition of Mexico from a democracy under the PRI, where the government was essentially a 1-party dictatorship and a kleptocracy, to a genuine multi-party system.

The book is centered around specific people, e.g., Vincente Fox of PAN, Carlos Salinas of PRI, Francisco Labastida of PRI, Cuauhtemoc Cardenas of PRD (son of a former president of Mexico), and many others. The writing style alternates between straightforward newspaper accounts, for example, of elections, and local color stories, disclosing the appearances and personalities of the politicians (Mexican president Gustavo Ordaz had buck teeth; Mexican president Carlos Salinas' ears stuck out). I might add that I saw Cuauhtemoc Cardenas give a speech at University of California at Berkeley in 2007. The fact that the book focuses on a different person for each chapter gives the book a firm, concrete grounding, making the book easy to understand for people ignorant of Mexican politics.

PREFACE. The Preface informs us that Mexico is different from nearby countries, in that it was never tempted by Communism, never succumbed to right-wing dictatorships, never succumbed to religious fanaticism, and that it maintained independence from Washington, D.C. We learn that the PRI governed Mexico for 71 years, in a 1-party "democracy," before being stopped by PAN party Vincente Fox.

The first eight or so chapters reveal that many factors were needed to bring a halt to the dictatorial PRI, a party distinguished by voter fraud and by the "dedazo" (where a president hand-picks his successor). These factors include the PRI's brutal reaction to student protests in 1968, PRI's incompetence at responding to the earthquake of 1985, a deluge of elected PAN candidates from northern Mexico, and from a publication in 1987 disclosing and proving PRI's voter fraud.

LOCAL COLOR. As mentioned above, the book brings occasional relief from more factual, newspaper accounts, by local color accounts. We read that in "modern Zocalo the goods on sale include herbal amulets from an Indian healer to cure impotence and lumbago, . . . or a pirated version of the latest Madonna CD." (page 34), or that, "for many Mexican drivers, a red light was not a command to stop, but he opening play in a contest of wits." (page 58)

We read about students yelling, "Come on out, monkey big-snort," referring to president Gustavo Ordaz (page 67), or to a Christmas song evoking protest against President Lopez Portillo's inappropriate responses to the earthquake. Mary and Joseph sing, "In the name of the Lo-o-o-ord, we ask for she-e-elter." "I am just the may-a-a-ayor, why should I do you a fa-a-a-vor?" came the response." (page 105)

CHAPTER ONE (pages 1-29) takes the form of a "fast-forward," as it discloses the day that Vincente Fox (PAN party) beat Francisco Labista (PRI party). We learn about third party candidate, Cuauhtemoc Cardenas (PRD party) who only got 17% of the votes, and who was a sore loser, pledged opposition to Fox, and declared Fox's victory to be a disaster.

CHAPTER TWO (p. 31-61) steps back and discloses the history of Mexico, starting when Miguel Hidalgo ignited rebellion against Spain on Sept. 16, 1810, only to be executed a year later (July 30, 1811), but leading ten years later to independence in 1821, which was unfortunately followed by 90 years of near-anarchy. Immediately after the revolution, Augustin Iturbide crowned himself emperor of Mexico. He initiated governance by military force and cults of personality that would last until the year 2000, that is, when Vincente Fox because president. Iturbide was executed after only 10 months. Antonio Santa Anna was president from 1833-1855, and was noted for losing Texas and California to the United States. Benito Juarez was president from 1858-1872, and was a full-blooded Zapotec Indian, and as a child could only speak Zapotec, and was known for reducing the influence of the Catholic church from Mexican politics, and for separating church and state. This is an enduring legacy of Benito Juarez. We learn of the 30 year rule of Porfirio Diaz (1876-1911). Diaz' regime was like a dictatorship, as he used tactics used by Al Capone. Diaz' motto was, "Pan o palo" (bread or stick), meaning that you had the choice of receiving free gifts of food and obeying Diaz, or being killed.

The revolution of 1914 involved Emiliano Zapata (leader of cowboy farmers and sugar workers in the south) and Pancho Villa (mule train driver, represented miners in the north), against Venustiano Carranza (landowner). Although Carraza (president from 1914-1920) prevailed and became president, his constitution incorporated Zapata's agenda defending private property, and it codified labor rights (right to strike) and separated church and state. Lazaro Cardenas (president 1934-1940) nationalized oil companies, increases the authority of the official party (which in 1946 became PRI), and initiated the "dedazo."

CHAPTER THREE (pages 63-93) discloses student protests of 1968 against President Gustavo Ordaz (1964-1970), who used military forces (tanks; bazookas) against high school students and college students. Mr. Ordaz is most well-known for shooting of hundreds of unarmed protesters during the Tlatelolco massacre in downtown Mexico City, on October 2nd, 1968. Unfortunately, this chapter fails to disclose adequately what all the protesting was about. This is a big empty spot in this chapter.

CHAPTER FOUR (page 96-115) describes Mexico's abundant oil fields, the oil price crash of 1981, nationalization of the banks by President Lopez Portillo, and the earthquake of Sept. 19, 1985. While 370 buildings collapsed in Mexico City, this chapter focuses on one building, the Nuevo Leon. The PRI's inadequate, and frankly abusive, response to the earthquake was one of the factors leading, eventually, to Vincente Fox's victory. PRI used aggressive military force to prevent people from rescuing their friends from collapsed buildings, PRI allowed government contractors to disrgard building codes, PRI threatened to relocated all the homeless people to another part of Mexico, PRI threatened to replace the collapsed apartments with office buildings.

CHAPTER FIVE (page 117-147). We learn that PAN was founded in 1939 by Manuel Morin, who created Mexico's central bank. PAN was created to oppose PRI, then led by Lazaro Cardenas. PAN was never taken seriously, and was thought of as a mere debating society. Businesses were afraid to associate with PAN, for fear of losing government contracts. PRI attacked PAN candidates by shutting off their electricity, by putting them in jail, by murdering them, and by stuffing ballot boxes.

This chapter also discloses one of the factors leading to eventual stop of PRI's 70 years of continuous rule. In northern Mexico, Luis Alvarez (textile manufacturer) became PAN mayor of Chihuahua, Francisco Terrazas became PAN mayor of Juarez. Ernesto Appel (owner of tuna fishing fleet) became PAN governor of Baja Calif. We learn that Chihuahua "erupted in protests . . . hundreds of angry voters stopped their cars and honked their horns at intersections in the state capital, the blockages spread to the state's biggest highways . . . turned their cars sideways." Also, Luis Alvarez conducted a 41 day hunger strike.

Subsequent chapters focus on Cuauhtemoc Cardenas (the sore loser), Vincente Fox (PAN president), and Carlos Salinas (founder of NAFTA, having ears that stick out), among other exciting topics.

INTERPRETING NAFTA by F.W. Mayer (1998) is a fine introduction to NAFTA, and Salina's role in NAFTA. In june 1990, Salinas and George Bush agreed to begin negotiating a free trade agreement. This was a turning point, ending many years of neglect and animosity between the U.S. and Mexico. Mexicans had feared and distrusted teh U.S., adn tightly restricted foreign investment, and it had nationalized foreigh-owned oil companies in 1938, and it erected high tariffs (about 20%), and it prohibited imports on foreign good if a corresponding domestic (Mexican) good was available. In the U.S., unions, environmental groups, Ross Perot, Jesse Jackson, and Pat Buchanan, argued against NAFTA. NAFTA negotiations officially began in June 1991. Bill Clinton took the middle ground, by insisting that NAFTA be supplemented by special agreements relating to labor and environment. On Nov. 17,1993, NAFTA passed in the House (234 to 200), and three days later in the Senate (61 to 38). INTERPRETING NAFTA further tells us that, in earlier times, the Mexican economy grew 7% per year during the 1970s, but in 1982 Mexico became bankrupt, and in 1987 Mexico sufferred a stock market crash. Under Mexican President Madrid, Mexico's 2-way traed with the U.S. soared, and Mexico became the U.S.'s third largest trading partner, and in 1985 made a relatively minor trade agreement with the U.S. relating to subsidies (but still, President Madrid was reluctant to establish formal economic ties with the U.S.). INTERPRETING NAFTA tells us that Sen. Bill Bradley of New Jersey was an advocate of NAFTA, adn met in 1987 with Salinas (when Madrid was Mexico's president). After Salinas' election, Salinas' most important NAFTA architect was Jaime Serra Puche. In his first year of office, Salinas eliminated import licensing requirements, adn privatized Mexico's state-owned businesses and banks. NAFTA benfitted Mexoco, because it prevented domestic interests from unraveling reforms, thereby promoting foreign investments. In my opinion, it is not possible to understand Salinas, unless you understand NAFTA. This understanding can be acquired, to some extent, by reading INTERPRETING NAFTA.

CONCLUSION. Preston and Dillon's book is a highly readable account of the recent political and social history of Mexico. The book is fact-based and does not wander into speculative territory. The authors do not have any particular axe to grind. To the extent that it is possible to disclose the PRI in a neutral, non-biased manner, the authors have succeeded admirably. For those who are alarmed at the corruption in Mexican politics, I recommend that the reader obtain some perspective by reading, AMERICAN PHARAOH:MAYOR RICHARD J. DALEY by Cohen and Taylor. FIVE STARS for OPENING MEXICO.

Julie Preston and Samuel Dillon have written a wonderfully researched and thorough look at Mexico's politics that anyone could read, understand, and learn from. They have used the stories of real people to bring to life the complex problems of the country and at the same time described the sweeping changes that the country has undergone. I read this book as preparation for moving to Merida in the Yucatan peninsula. I feel that I can appreciate the current political discussions and events much better thanks to the background that the book provided.

"Opening Mexico" is a very readable and thought provoking work on the 30+-year process of democratic reform in Mexico. As many will know, Mexico has developed its own unique form of democratic governance. Yes, a single party controlled the government since the revolution and all power flowed from the president, selected by the prior incumbent; but this arrangement was flexible enough to encompass most social, labor, business and popular sectors of society. This highly adaptive system survived and indeed brought a modicum of order to what had been a highly chaotic and often barely governable society.

The authors describe how this system began to break under the weight of its own size. The election of Diaz Ordaz, a stern and cold authoritarian figure who rather than negotiate with student radicals, orders their suppression, is the beginning of the end for the old line regime. This event, the Tlatelolco Massacre (1968) begins the slow process of loss of legitimacy that culminates in the election of the first opposition politician Vicente Fox in 2000.

In between, the authors take us on a survey of corruption throughout all levels of public life, mainly bred by drug money. Further, we see the incredible flexibility of the PRI system as well as its ruthlessness in holding on to power. Bribery, strong arm tactics, ballot box stuffing, intimidation, beatings and murders are all tools in the repertoire of the ruling party. While dissent is officially encouraged, we also see the aggressive co-opting of opposition politicians of all stripes. This results in a political environment where political alternatives have been either infected by corruption or have become so indebted to the current system so as to lose all legitimacy.

A good book not a definitive history but certainly a well written account of a tumultuous time in the history of Mexico and a fascinating view of an authoritarian regime struggling with democratic change.

John C. McKee