Mexico's political earthquake: A stunning defeat for the PRI
It’s like the Berlin Wall falling down,” said one Mexican official about his country’s July 2 election. “But the PRI lasted longer than the wall.” A lot longer. In power for 71 years, the oxymoronically named Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, has had the longest continuous rule of any political group in the world. Under the all-pervasive PRI, party, government and presidency had become virtually synonymous; unions, industries and many other aspects of Mexican society fell under its control.