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1970 Mexican general election
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March 2022
Mexico 5 July 1970 yes Presidential election presidential 1964 Mexican general election 1964 1976 Mexican general election 1976 Luis Echeverría CAC CC 001 18 13 0000 1280 (cropped).jpg Luis Echeverría Institutional Revolutionary Party 11,970,893 86.02% Efraín González Morfin.jpg Efraín González Morfín National Action Party (Mexico) 1,945,070 13.98% 1970 Mexican presidential election by state.svg Votes for Luis Echeverría by state: #2ca02c 60–70% #217821 70–80% #165016 80–90% #0b280b 90–100% President Gustavo Díaz Ordaz Institutional Revolutionary Party Luis Echeverría Institutional Revolutionary Party
General elections were held in Mexico on 5 July 1970.Dieter Nohlen (2005) Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume I, p453 978-0-19-928357-6 The presidential elections were won by Luis Echeverría, who received 86% of the vote. In the Chamber of Deputies election, the Institutional Revolutionary Party won 178 of the 213 seats,Nohlen, p468 as well as winning all 64 seats in the Senate election.Nohlen, p470 Voter turnout in the legislative elections was 64%.Nohlen, p454
Designation of the PRI presidential candidate
Among the many individuals considered by President Díaz Ordaz to succeed him were Alfonso Corona del Rosal (Head of the Federal District Department), Luis Echeverría (Secretary of the Interior) and Emilio Martínez Manatou (Secretary of the Presidency).Jorge G. Castañeda, Perpetuating Power: How Mexican Presidents were Chosen. New York: The New Press 2000
According to Jorge G. Castañeda, Díaz Ordaz arrived at a final decision in the aftermath of the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre, in which the Army killed a multitude of unarmed protesters in Mexico City after months of student protests across the country. The massacre was a turning point in Mexican history, and the exact responsibility of the officials involved in it continues to be debated, with many asserting that the Secretary of the Interior, Echeverría, was the one who ordered the troops to shoot at the protesters.Schmidt, Samuel. "Luis Echeverría" in Encyclopedia of Mexico. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn 1997, p. 427.
With the 1970 elections ahead, Díaz Ordaz "disqualified" both Corona del Rosal and Martínez Manatou from becoming the PRI presidential candidates: in the former's case, because Díaz Ordaz feared that, in the aftermath of the Tlatelolco massacre, Corona del Rosal would be rejected by the population due to his military background; while in the case of Martínez Manatou, he was seen as too close to the dissident sectors that had been behind the 1968 movement.Jorge G. Castañeda, Perpetuating Power: How Mexican Presidents were Chosen. New York: The New Press 2000
Therefore, Díaz Ordaz decided on Echeverría, who didn't have a military background but had unmistakably been a loyal hardliner not just during the events of 1968, but during the entire Díaz Ordaz administration.
In an extraordinary move, during his annual Address to the Congress on 1 September 1969, President Díaz Ordaz assumed the full "personal, ethical, social, judicial, political and historical responsibility" for the government's decisions during the 1968 events.Gustavo Díaz Ordaz asume la culpabilidad de la matanza del 2 de Octubre YouTube 20 September 2009 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwP_2FYXjx0 https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211220/JwP_2FYXjx0 2021-12-20 live 23 June 2020 This was interpreted by many as the definitive signal that the President had decided on Echeverría to be his successor, as Díaz Ordaz was assuming complete responsibility for the repression, clearing Echeverría of any culpability. Indeed, two months later, on 8 November 1969 the PRI formally announced that Echeverría would be the party's candidate for the 1970 presidential elections.Jorge G. Castañeda, Perpetuating Power: How Mexican Presidents were Chosen. New York: The New Press 2000
Before being nominated as presidential candidate, Echeverría had never held a popularly elected post; he would be the first in a series of PRI presidential candidates (and thus Presidents of Mexico) until 1993,In 1993 the PRI nominated Luis Donaldo Colosio, who had previously been elected to the Congress as Deputy and Senator, but after his assassination in March 1994 he was replaced by Ernesto Zedillo, who had never held a popularly elected post before. who had never been elected to any office before receiving the presidential nomination.
Campaign
In addition to being nominated by the PRI, Echeverría was also nominated by the Authentic Party of the Mexican Revolution (PARM) and the Popular Socialist Party (PPS), two traditional PRI satellites. The coordinator of the Echeverría campaign was Alfonso Martínez Domínguez, who was also President of the PRI.Se cumple natalicio número 100 de Alfonso Martínez Domínguez https://www.elhorizonte.mx/local/se-cumple-natalicio-numero-100-alfonso-martinez-dominguez/4057130 El Horizonte 7 January 2022 29 January 2022Espinosa Benavides Leopoldo Los Grandes Gobernadores de Nuevo León. Alfonso Martínez Domínguez, primera parte http://elregio.com/Noticia/7a195269-6031-4064-a073-ba3cbb657914 Regio.com 29 January 2022 The only opposition candidate in the presidential race was Efraín González Morfín, a former legislator, nominated by the right-wing National Action Party (PAN)
Whereas Echeverría had been a hardliner during the Díaz Ordaz administration, and had been known as a discreet bureaucrat during his entire career, upon becoming the Presidential candidate he radically changed his image, adopting a populist rhetoric towards the peasants and the students; this was likely to shake off the accusations that he had been responsible for the Tlatelolco massacre. As Enrique Krauze puts it, Echeverría became "immediately obsessed with making people forget that he had ever done it."Enrique Krauze, Mexico: Biography of Power. New York: HarperCollins 1997, pp. 736-37
250px|thumb|left|Various Echeverría campaign items; the sign at the top features his campaign motto "Arriba y adelante" ("Upwards and onwards").
A confusing incident in November 1969 (shortly after Echeverría was officially nominated as the PRI presidential candidate) provoked controversy and almost led to Echeverría being replaced. During a visit to the Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo (popularly known as the "Nicolaita University"), Echeverría gave an address that had a mixed reception among the students present. Shortly after finishing the address and as the candidate prepared to leave the building, one of the students shouted demanding everyone present to keep a minute of silence in memory of the students massacred in Tlatelolco. Echeverría and his aides were shocked, and he agreed to keep a minute of silence "for the dead, for both the students and the soldiers who died in Tlatelolco", after which the entire audience, including Echeverría, kept the minute of silence.Krauze Enrique Entrevista a Luis Echeverría Álvarez. "Fui leal a las instituciones" https://www.letraslibres.com/mexico/revista/entrevista-luis-echeverria-alvarez-fui-leal-las-instituciones Letras Libres 2 October 2018 23 June 2020
250px|thumb|right|A contribution bond for the Echeverría campaign.
The military chiefs, including the Secretary of the Defense Marcelino García Barragán, were outraged by the incident and expressed their indignation to president Díaz Ordaz, stating that the Armed Forces would no longer support Echeverría and demanding that he be replaced as the party's candidate. Nonetheless, Díaz Ordaz stood by Echeverría, who the next day gave an address in which he praised the Armed Forces. In early January 1970, Echeverría and García Barragán met at the latter's ranch in Autlán to definitely put aside the conflict.Castañeda Jorge G. La herencia: Arqueología de la sucesión presidencial en México 1999 Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial SA de CV 9786073133746 https://books.google.com/books?id=JLR3CgAAQBAJ&q=luis+echeverria+universidad+nicolaita&pg=PT380 23 June 2020
Traditionally, PRI presidential candidates would undertake extensive tours of the national territory during their campaigns, and Echeverría in particular visited more than 900 towns, was seen in person by 10 million people and traveled more than 56,000 kilometers on his campaign bus, which he named "Miguel Hidalgo" after the independence hero. Echeverría was notorious for usually wearing guayaberas on his tours and campaign rallies.The election of 1970 and after http://inside.sfuhs.org/dept/history/Jesse/cultscivs/Mexico/echeverria.html 31 January 2022
Echeverría promised that his government would not be "neither to the right nor to the left, but upward and onward". The tensions with the students continued, and on one occasion, Echeverría defended the jailing of the students who had participated in the 1968 protests, stating that no one had been arrested "for writing a novel or a poem or for his way of thinking".Mexico: Upward and Onward https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,909447,00.html TIME 13 July 1970 Echeverría was also contrary to the implementation of policies to lower the high population growth rate (which was then of 3.5% per year), stating that the size of families was "a private matter for parents to decide" and that it wasn't "a proper area for the state".de Onis Juan A Sure Winner for Presidency Is Campaigning Hard in Mexico https://www.nytimes.com/1970/06/27/archives/a-sure-winner-for-presidency-is-campaigning-hard-in-mexico.html 31 January 2022 The New York Times 27 June 1970
There were many songs written for the Echeverría campaign; two of them, "Corrido de Luis Echeverría" and "Arriba y Adelante" were recorded by popular ranchera singer Francisco "Charro" Avitia.
Results
President
Luis Echeverría Institutional Revolutionary Party 11970893 Efraín González Morfín National Action Party 1945070 21654217 Nohlen
By state
State Echeverría Álvarez(PRI + PARM + PPS) González Morfín(PAN) Unregistered candidates Null votes Total Votes % Votes % Votes % Votes % Aguascalientes 82,845 87.05% 11,959 12.56% 355 0.37% 0 0% 95.159 Baja California 207,126 73.28% 72,175 25.53% 374 0.13% 2,945 1.04% 282,620 Baja California Sur 35,661 93.84% 2,023 5.32% 103 0.27% 211 0.55% 37,998 Campeche 90,018 97.44% 1,768 1.91% 269 0.29% 323 0.34% 92,378 Chiapas 442,335 98.91% 4,853 1.08% 0 0% 0 0% 447,188 Chihuahua 356,852 78.33% 83,120 18.24% 882 0.19% 14,709 3.22% 455,563 Coahuila 314,547 91.09% 30,350 8.78% 187 0.05% 207 0.05% 345,291 Colima 49,085 90.43% 5,005 9.22% 10 0.01% 175 0.32% 54,275 Durango 188,934 86.67% 28,895 13.25% 143 6.56% 0 0% 217,972 Federal District 1,567,509 66.18% 696,641 29.41% 13,784 0.58% 90,563 3.82% 2,368,497 Guanajuato 459,328 80.74% 108,938 19.15% 56 0.009% 539 0.09% 568,861 Guerrero 451,436 95.63% 20,341 4.30% 242 0.05% 0 0% 472,019 Hidalgo 438,739 97.00% 12,798 2.82% 198 0.04% 561 0.12% 452,296 Jalisco 804,838 81.67% 167,629 17.01% 1,877 0.19% 11,037 1.12% 985,381 Michoacán 544,176 86.25% 82,909 13.14% 221 0.03% 3,603 0.57% 630,909 Morelos 163,512 90.17% 17,583 9.69% 22 0.01% 211 0.11% 181,328 Nayarit 129,067 80.03% 4,686 2.90% 27 0.01% 27,486 17.04% 161,266 Nuevo León 360,328 83.65% 67,704 15.71% 1,040 0.24% 1,668 0.38% 430,740 Oaxaca 661,068 96.57% 23,465 3.42% 0 0% 0 0% 684,533 Puebla 568,028 84.76% 96,313 14.37% 381 0.05% 5,380 0.80% 670,102 Querétaro 133,480 90.35% 13,620 9.21% 43 0.02% 582 0.39% 147,732 Quintana Roo 32,069 97.86% 528 1.61% 3 0.009% 167 0.50% 32,767 San Luis Potosí 331,999 90.04% 35,947 9.74% 126 0.03% 625 0.16% 368,697 Sinaloa 269,202 94.29% 15,440 5.40% 282 0.09% 572 0.20% 285,486 Sonora 211,673 93.34% 14,714 6.48% 384 0.16% 0 0% 226,771 State of Mexico 744,826 84.19% 134,949 15.25% 1,142 0.12% 3,753 0.42% 884,670 Tabasco 235,763 99.01% 2,355 0.98% 0 0% 0 0% 238,118 Tamaulipas 374,493 91.45% 34.209 8.35% 285 0.06% 512 0.12% 409,499 Tlaxcala 117,357 93.86% 7,098 5.67% 90 0.07% 35 0.02% 125,028 Veracruz 1,068,571 90.48% 84,422 7.14% 252 0.02% 27,668 2.34% 1,180,913 Yucatán 205,284 85.24% 35,546 14.76% 0 0% 0 0% 240,830 Zacatecas 261,556 90.74% 26,643 9.24% 37 0.01% 0 0% 288,236 Total 11,902,153 84.63% 1,944,626 13.82% 22,815 0.16% 193,539 1.37% 14,063,133 Source: CEDE https://web.archive.org/web/20200626045926/http://cede.izt.uam.mx:8089/cedeSys/faces/cede/records.xhtml?tableId=12 26 June 2020
Senate
File:XLVII Legislatura de la Cámara de Senadores de México.svg Institutional Revolutionary Party 11154003 60 0 National Action Party 1889157 0 0 Popular Socialist Party 143648 0 0 Authentic Party of the Mexican Revolution 3476 0 0 Non-registered candidates 33568 0 0 717010 21654217 0 Nohlen
Four other senators from the governing PRI took their seats in a by-election in 1975 to conclude the 1970-1976 term.
Chamber of Deputies
File:Mexican CD 1970.svg Institutional Revolutionary Party 11125770 178 +1 National Action Party 1893289 20 0 Popular Socialist Party 188854 10 0 Authentic Party of the Mexican Revolution 111883 5 0 Non-registered candidates 35192 0 0 585874 21654217 +1 Nohlen
Notes
References
Category:Presidential elections in Mexico
General
Category:Legislative elections in Mexico
Category:Election and referendum articles with incomplete results