Longtime Mexican politician Luis H. Alvarez dies at 96

MEXICO CITY – Luis H. Alvarez, a former presidential candidate and longtime prominent figure in the conservative National Action Party who spent decades pushing for democratic reform in Mexico, died Wednesday. He was 96.

The party known as the PAN for its Spanish-language initials made the announcement in an evening statement, without specifying a cause of death.

“The passing of Don Luis H. Alvarez fills the party and Mexico with pain, as he was one of the greatest figures of our recent history and one of the leaders of the transition to democracy,” party president Ricardo Anaya was quoted as saying.

Former President Felipe Calderon, also a member of PAN, called Alvarez an “exemplary Mexican” via his Twitter account.

Born Oct. 25, 1919, in the northern state of Chihuahua, Alvarez ran for governor of that state in 1956 and made an unsuccessful bid for the presidency as the PAN candidate in 1958.

At that time the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, had an iron grip on the presidency and most of Mexico’s political system that lasted for 71 unbroken years. Alvarez lost to PRI candidate Adolfo Lopez Mateos, who took nearly 91 per cent of the vote.

Alvarez, who was not allowed any radio time to campaign, recalled years later how his operation was harassed, physically attacked and sometimes shut out of hotels.

At one point he was arrested and spent several hours behind bars. When he asked on what charge, the jailer said “being a candidate of the opposition,” Alvarez told The Associated Press in 2000.

In 1986, Alvarez attracted attention as the mayor of the Chihuahua state capital by going on a hunger strike to protest alleged PRI vote-rigging in local elections and to call for a more open democracy. He lost 15 pounds during the protest and was hospitalized when it ended after 41 days.

The following year he was chosen at age 67 as the PAN’s new leader, a position he used to continue agitating for truly competitive elections.

In 1988 the party finished third in a presidential vote that many believed was fraudulently stolen from Cuauhtemoc Cardenas of the leftist opposition.

Seeking legitimacy, the winning candidate, Carlos Salinas of the PRI, forged a tactical alliance with Alvarez and the PAN that forced major reforms to the political system.

During Alvarez’s tenure as party president through 1993, the PAN won its first governorships in several states as opposition victories gradually came to be recognized.

The PRI’s stranglehold on the presidency finally ended in 2000 with the historic election of the PAN’s Vicente Fox, who named Alvarez peace negotiator for talks with leftist Zapatista rebels in the southern state of Chiapas.

Calderon won office six years later and made Alvarez his commissioner for indigenous affairs.

Alvarez’s legacy “is undeniable for democrats and for Mexico,” Anaya said in the statement. “The recent history of Mexico cannot be understood without his tremendous participation.”

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