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Another problem is the "tomato war." Earlier this year, Florida truck farmers filed complaints with the Treasury Department that Mexican producers were "dumping" tons of sun-ripened tomatoes and other produce on the U.S. But López Portillo has insisted that Mexican farmers need access to the lucrative U.S. market in order to bolster his country's agricultural economy. He has made it clear that future Mexican cooperation on energy supplies depends on a resolution of this issue, but it is not likely to come while Florida is playing a pivotal early role in the presidential primaries...
There are some checks and balances, but in typical Mexican fashion, they operate indirectly. If a President leans too far to the left, as did López Portillo's predecessor, Luis Echeverria, businessmen can express their displeasure by withholding investments; if he leans too far to the right, as did Gustavo Diaz Ordaz, who ruled from 1964 to 1970, labor leaders and peasant organizations can protest with crippling strikes. To accommodate such pressures, Mexican Presidents usually swing away from the direction of their predecessors, in an effort to appease whatever faction was left most dissatisfied by the previous administration. Echeverria...
Last May the López Portillo government began a well-publicized series of crackdowns on corrupt officials. The federal attorney general, Oscar Florez Sanchez, declared that he would investigate "everybody from the governor of Coahuila on down" after $6.6 million worth of denim dyes were smuggled into Mexico aboard a plane owned by the state government; the digging finally focused on the pilot and an associate. The Mexican information agency announced last spring that 900 investigations into public corruption had begun. So far none of those investigations has produced even an indictment, much less a conviction. Charges Hero Rodriguez Toro...
...legacy of Emiliano Zapata's battle cry, "Land and Liberty," is sporadic violence. Peasants who protest the ruthless domination of local rural political bosses are routinely shot by their oppressors or harassed by the army. Land redistribution has apparently reached a dead end, as López Portillo conceded during his state of the union address a month ago. Said he: "The land available for distribution is becoming exhausted, but the number of campesinos with the right to the land is growing...
...theory, prevalent at the time of his nomination, was that after leaving office Echeverria secretly hoped to manipulate López Portillo from behind the scenes. A more plausible explanation is that the former President recognized how deep Mexico's malaise really was, and in a statesmanlike manner settled on a capable economist who could restore business confidence. When he handed over the sash of office on inauguration day, a newsman asked: "What is going to happen to the Echeverristas now?" The ex-President answered: "There are no Echeverristas, only López Portillistas...