1970 Mexican general election

5 July 1970
Presidential election
 
Nominee Luis Echeverría Efraín González Morfín
Party PRI PAN
Popular vote 11,970,893 1,945,070
Percentage 86.02% 13.98%

Results by state

President before election

Gustavo Díaz Ordaz
PRI

Elected President

Luis Echeverría
PRI

General elections were held in Mexico on 5 July 1970.[1] The presidential elections were won by Luis Echeverría Álvarez, who received 86% of the vote. In the Chamber of Deputies election, the Institutional Revolutionary Party won 178 of the 213 seats,[2] as well as winning all 64 seats in the Senate election.[3] Voter turnout in the legislative elections was 64.4%.[4]

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 Álvarez (Secretary of the Interior) and Emilio Martínez Manatou (Secretary of the Presidency).[5]

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.[6]

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.[7]

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.[8] 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.[9]

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,[lower-alpha 1] 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.[10][11] 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."[12]

Various Echeverría campaign items; the sign at the top features his campaign motto "Arriba y adelante" ("Upwards and onwards").

A confusing incident on 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.[13]

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.[14]

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.[15]

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".[16] 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".[17]

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

CandidatePartyVotes%
Luis Echeverría ÁlvarezInstitutional Revolutionary Party11,970,89386.02
Efraín González MorfínNational Action Party1,945,07013.98
Total13,915,963100.00
Registered voters/turnout21,654,217
Source: 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

Senate

PartyVotes%Seats+/–
Institutional Revolutionary Party11,154,00384.35600
National Action Party1,889,15714.2900
Popular Socialist Party143,6481.0900
Authentic Party of the Mexican Revolution3,4760.0300
Non-registered candidates33,5680.2500
Total13,223,852100.00600
Valid votes13,223,85294.86
Invalid/blank votes717,0105.14
Total votes13,940,862100.00
Registered voters/turnout21,654,21764.38
Source: 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

PartyVotes%Seats+/–
Institutional Revolutionary Party11,125,77083.31178+1
National Action Party1,893,28914.18200
Popular Socialist Party188,8541.41100
Authentic Party of the Mexican Revolution111,8830.8450
Non-registered candidates35,1920.2600
Total13,354,988100.00213+1
Valid votes13,354,98895.80
Invalid/blank votes585,8744.20
Total votes13,940,862100.00
Registered voters/turnout21,654,21764.38
Source: Nohlen

Notes

  1. 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.

References

  1. Dieter Nohlen (2005) Elections in the Americas: A data handbook, Volume I, p453 ISBN 978-0-19-928357-6
  2. Nohlen, p468
  3. Nohlen, p470
  4. Nohlen, p454
  5. Jorge G. Castañeda, Perpetuating Power: How Mexican Presidents were Chosen. New York: The New Press 2000
  6. Schmidt, Samuel. "Luis Echeverría" in Encyclopedia of Mexico. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn 1997, p. 427.
  7. Jorge G. Castañeda, Perpetuating Power: How Mexican Presidents were Chosen. New York: The New Press 2000
  8. "Gustavo Díaz Ordaz asume la culpabilidad de la matanza del 2 de Octubre". YouTube. Archived from the original on 20 December 2021. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  9. Jorge G. Castañeda, Perpetuating Power: How Mexican Presidents were Chosen. New York: The New Press 2000
  10. "Se cumple natalicio número 100 de Alfonso Martínez Domínguez". El Horizonte. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
  11. Espinosa Benavides, Leopoldo. "Los Grandes Gobernadores de Nuevo León. Alfonso Martínez Domínguez, primera parte". Regio.com. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
  12. Enrique Krauze, Mexico: Biography of Power. New York: HarperCollins 1997, pp. 736-37
  13. Krauze, Enrique (2 October 2018). "Entrevista a Luis Echeverría Álvarez. "Fui leal a las instituciones"". Letras Libres. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  14. Castañeda, Jorge G. (1999). La herencia: Arqueología de la sucesión presidencial en México. Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial SA de CV. ISBN 9786073133746. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  15. "The election of 1970 and after". Retrieved 31 January 2022.
  16. "Mexico: Upward and Onward". TIME. 13 July 1970.
  17. de Onis, Juan (27 June 1970). "A Sure Winner for Presidency Is Campaigning Hard in Mexico". The New York Times. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
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