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Party of the Democratic Revolution — news, coverage & facts — IJR

Early origins

The PRD had its origins with the leftist members of the PRI, Institutional Revolutionary Party. The PRI had dominated Mexican politics since its founding in 1929. In 1986, a group of PRI members – including Ifigenia Martínez, Rodolfo González Guevara, Porfirio Muñoz Ledo, and Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas – formed the Democratic Current, a political faction within the PRI.

The Democratic Current aimed to pressure the PRI to become a more democratic party and to address the issue of national debt including the social effects of the economic crisis that came from attempting to pay that debt. The Democratic Current was also against technocratization, in which the people in power had not held public office and were scholars who were often educated abroad. Under the Miguel de la Madrid presidency which lasted from 1982–1988, the PRI and Mexico were moving towards a technocracy especially since de la Madrid was a technocrat himself. The Democratic Current did not have many technocrats and was thus left out of the decision-making process. This political marginalization led the Democratic Current members to be more vocal about their concerns because they did not have a position of power to protect within the PRI.

After public criticisms and debate between the Democratic Current and the PRI, ten Democratic Current members signed Working Document Number One which was the official beginning of the Democratic Current. However, the PRI refused to acknowledge the Democratic Current as an organization unless they joined a union, which was allowed in the PRI. The forming of a group that was not united because of work but because of difference in ideology within the PRI caused fear of division within the party.

Once de la Madrid's six-year term as president was coming to a close, the PRI chose six possible candidates for president and notably did not choose Cárdenas. The PRI had no process to apply as a candidate so Cárdenas could not run as a candidate for president. On 4 October 1987, Carlos Salinas de Gortari was ultimately chosen as the PRI candidate. Gortari did not embody anything that the Democratic Current wanted and many of the Democratic Current members left the PRI including Cárdenas during November 1987. Some Democratic Current members went on to support Cárdenas in his 1988 quest for presidency and help in the founding of the PRD.

On 12 October 1987, Cárdenas became the Authentic Party of the Mexican Revolution's presidential candidate. Cárdenas still remained an independent candidate due to electoral laws which meant that many parties could choose Cárdenas as their candidate. The groups of the independent left that supported Cárdenas were the Mexican Socialist Party which included the Unified Socialist Party of Mexico, the Mexican Workers' Party, the Patriotic Revolutionary Party, the Communist Left Unity, and the People's Revolutionary Movement. The parastatal groups, state-owned enterprises that are separate from government, that supported Cárdenas were the Authentic Party of the Mexican Revolution, Popular Socialist Party, and the Party of the Cardenist Front of National Reconstruction, which made up the National Democratic Front. Other groups that supported Cárdenas were the Social Democratic Party, Ecologist Green Party of Mexico, Democratic Unity, Movement for Socialism, Critical Point Revolutionary Organization, and Neighborhood Assembly To provide a mechanism to coordinate and communicate with one another about campaign activities, these groups formed a coordinating body named the National Democratic Front (Mexico). The Mexican Socialist Party did not join in an official capacity, rather the party signed a separate pact with the Democratic Current.

In the 1988 presidential election, Cárdenas had come closer than any other political candidate to winning against the PRI, which had been in power since 1929. The victory of the PRI's candidate, Carlos Salinas de Gortari, was largely considered guilty of electoral fraud in 1988; this was after the computers tabulating votes had reportedly crashed. As a result, Cárdenas claimed that he had won the election, although he never declared himself president. The National Democratic Front continued to support Cárdenas by signing a Declaration for the Defense of Popular Sovereignty. Protests erupted in support of Cárdenas, the largest of which occurred on 16 July and had an attendance of at least 300,000 people. Nonetheless, the election was ratified. Years later, it was determined that there was indeed electoral fraud in the election.

First decade (1989–1999)

Small leftist group leaders joined the PRD which left small leftist organizations vulnerable. Additionally, some leftist organizations were wary that their concerns would be lost by joining a political group.

In the early years, the PRD was not successful in elections because of electoral fraud. The PRD often claimed that the PRI was participating in electoral fraud. This was in contrast to PAN, the conservative party, who chose to cooperate with the PRI. However, the PRD also cooperated with the PRI to make policy changes that moved towards democracy.

Salinas, PRI member and president of Mexico from 1988 to 1994, had made some improvements to the Mexican economy but Mexico still did not have a democratic system. During this time the PRD had become involved with many social justice movements against the neoliberal and antidemocratic policies of the PRI. The most famous of which was the party's involvement with the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN). Some members of the party wanted to strongly and publicly denounce the armed struggle, whereas others decided to emphatically approve the movement and its goals therefore, it was difficult to form a united front. Nonetheless, many PRD supporters also supported the EZLN and bolstered the movement through the use of posters and murals at PRD events. Although these instances portrayed the party to appear to be more radical than they were, Cárdenas himself took advantage of this support. He met with Subcomandante Marcos and did not attempt to distance the party from the EZLN. This support did not pay off as the EZLN did not help the PRD win any votes and Marcos accused the PRD of being the same as the PRI and PAN. The PRI labeled Cárdenas and the PRD as sympathizers of the EZLN and supporters of armed struggle. Additionally, the PRD had a difficult time transitioning from a movement with a non-negotiable goal to a party that pushed gradual reforms.

Cárdenas ran for national presidency under the PRD in 1994. Cárdenas ran against Diego Fernández, PAN candidate, and PRI party winner of the election, Ernesto Zedillo Ponce. Cárdenas made the Alianza Democrática Nacional campaign, where he mobilized 57 organizations. Cárdenas did not cooperate well with the PRD and was sometimes contradictory to the PRD.

The PRI used its media influence to promote the idea that changing the governing party would disrupt the nation as well as to portray Cárdenas and the PRD as confrontational and violent.

After his loss, Cárdenas claimed fraud; however, the party did not support him and instead focused on winning seats in Congress.

In 1997, the PRD won its first governorship with Cárdenas as governor of Mexico City. The PRD also gained the second largest majority in the Chamber of Deputies. These victories were due in part to changes in electoral rules. These changes included the creation of the new Federal Elections Institute in 1990 which established six independent councilors who required legislative approval.

This division between currents was seen during the internal election of 14 March 1999 when there were voting discrepancies.

By the end of 1999, 650 members of the PRD had been assassinated, mostly by the PRI, as a way to intimidate those working towards democracy, civic engagement, and social movements.

Second decade (1999–2009)

After the election of Vicente Fox, PAN candidate, the PRD announced that it would not file any complaints about the elections. This was a shift in strategy from the usual protests of fraud. However, some local PRD activist groups filed complaints but these were turned down by the PRD and the electoral court.

The former mayor of Mexico City, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, was the presidential candidate for the "Coalición por el Bien de Todos" (Coalition for the Good of All) in the 2006 presidential elections. López Obrador ran against Felipe Calderón, PAN candidate, and Roberto Madrazo, PRI candidate.

López Obrador's campaign relied on citizen's networks (redes ciudadanas) that focused on mobilizing the public to campaign. This strategy focused on López Obrador as an individual and not the PRD. This was worrisome to PRD leaders because they thought that the PRD's concerns would not be addressed. However, many party members thought that López Obrador would win so these concerns were not addressed.

After the general election of 2 July 2006 and a recount of the 9.09% of the ballot tally sheets which supposedly presented irregularities, the Federal Electoral Institute recorded the vote results in favor of Felipe Calderón by a margin of 0.58 percent, about 243,000 votes. These results were later validated by the Federal Electoral Tribunal. However, the PRD claimed that there was election fraud. The claims of election fraud have been rejected by the Federal Electoral Tribunal (TEPJF), which considered these "notoriously out of order" ("notoriamente improcedente") and certified PAN's candidate Felipe Calderón as the winner.

López Obrador then rallied his supporters to hold demonstrations in the capital, Mexico City. These demonstrations were organized by the PRD, whose stronghold is in Mexico City. The PRD had called for demonstrations and set up camps in the capital's main square, blocking one of its main avenues (Paseo de la Reforma) for six weeks to demand a recount of all votes, which was not granted. The camps were later dismantled after a confrontation with the Mexican Army became likely.

On 5 September, the Federal Electoral Tribunal announced that there was not enough evidence of electoral fraud that legitimized Calderon as president. This caused López Obrador to maintain his campaign of civil disobedience and declared himself as "Legitimate President" in a "public open vote" (people in the main square raising their hands). López Obrador did not recognize the legitimacy of Calderón as president. The PRD was criticized for not complying with the democratic system that it had lauded and helped create. However, the PRD could not agree on whether they should move forward and cooperate with the current system and contribute to policy or take on an uncompromising stance in an attempt to overturn the current system. This split later trickled on to other things such as electoral and petroleum reforms where one part of the party wanted to cooperate while the other refused to out of allegiance to López Obrador.

In 2008, after bitter infighting within the party, Jesús Ortega, an opponent of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, was elected party president. In the 2009 legislative elections, López Obrador supported two smaller parties while maintaining his ties to the PRD.

The party had enjoyed a reputation of honesty unmatched by its competitors, until the "Video Scandals" a series of videos where notable party members were taped receiving cash funds or betting large sums of money in a Las Vegas casino.

Later, another video was recorded by Cuba's government where Carlos Ahumada, the man providing the money, states that members of the PRI and PAN, PRD's rivals, were planning the situation presented in the first video as part of a plot against Andrés Manuel López Obrador to discredit him as a possible presidential candidate.

Party members who were seen on the videotapes were expelled from the party, but those who were supposedly associated, but never legally charged, are still active members.

Modern era (2009–present)

López Obrador ran for president again in 2012, but lost to Enrique Peña Nieto.

After the loss, López Obrador told a rally in Mexico City's main plaza Zocalo on 9 September 2012 that he would withdraw from the Democratic Revolution Party "on the best of terms," as well as the Labor Party and Citizens' Movement (MC). He added that he was working on founding a new party from the Movement for National Regeneration, which he would later name MORENA.

The defeat of the PAN and the PRD in the Mexico general elections in 2012, as well as the departure of Andrés Manuel López Obrador from the PRD, caused these two parties to approach each other despite the friction obtained in the 2006 general elections.

In 2017, Ricardo Anaya, then President of PAN, announced his party's proposal to create an alliance of politicians called "Opposition Wide Front" to "form a coalition government that will result in a stable majority that can govern the country and make the change of regime a reality."

On 5 September, the PAN formalized an alliance with PRD and MC under the name of "Citizen Front for Mexico," registering the coalition before the National Electoral Institute, an alliance to last for 6 years.

On 17 December, the three parties ratified the alliance with the creation of an electoral coalition to participate in the federal elections of 2018 and multiple state elections with the name of "Por México al Frente."

In August 2018, PRD abandoned Por México al Frente. In early 2019, the PRD split, with nine deputies leaving the PRD and joining Morena and the government coalition of López Obrador. This gave the government a two-thirds majority, allowing for the passage of constitutional reform.

On 22 December 2020, the PRD formed the new alliance Va por México, together with the National Action Party and the Institutional Revolutionary Party.

In 2023, the PRD, along with the National Action Party and the Institutional Revolutionary Party formed the Fuerza y Corazón por México, an electoral alliance that competed in the 2024 Mexican general election with Xóchitl Gálvez as the coalitions' presidential candidate against the Sigamos Haciendo Historia coalition's candidate Claudia Sheinbaum of the Morena party.