Institutional Revolutionary Party

The Institutional Revolutionary Party (, ; abbr. PRI) is a political party in Mexico that was founded in 1929 and held uninterrupted power in the country for 71 years, from 1929 to 2000, first as the National Revolutionary Party (, PNR), then as the Party of the Mexican Revolution (, PRM) and finally as the PRI beginning in 1946. The PNR was founded in 1929 by Plutarco Elías Calles, Mexico's paramount leader at the time and self-proclaimed (Supreme Chief) of the Mexican Revolution. The party was created with the intent of providing a political space in which all the surviving leaders and combatants of the Mexican Revolution could participate and to solve the severe political crisis caused by the assassination of President-elect Álvaro Obregón in 1928. Although Calles himself fell into political disgrace and was exiled in 1936, the party continued ruling Mexico until 2000, changing names twice until it became the PRI. The PRI maintained absolute power over the country for most of the twentieth century: besides holding the Presidency of the Republic, until 1976 all members of the Senate belonged to the PRI, while all of the state governors were also from the PRI until 1989. Throughout the seven decades that the PRI governed Mexico, the party used a combination of corporatism, co-option and repression to hold power, while often resorting to electoral fraud. In particular, the presidential elections of 1940, 1952 and 1988 were characterized by massive irregularities and fraudulent practices denounced by both domestic and international observers. While during the early decades of PRI rule Mexico benefited from an economic boom which improved the quality of life of most people and guaranteed political and social stability, issues such as inequality, corruption and the lack of democracy and political freedoms cultivated growing opposition against the PRI, culminating in the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre in which the Army killed hundreds of unarmed student demonstrators. In addition, a series of economic crises beginning in the 1970s drastically hit the living standards of the population. Throughout its nine-decade existence, the party has featured a very wide array of ideologies (the one in use during any given period often determined by the President of the Republic at that time).