The "Dinosaur" is dead. After 70 years, the PRI will no longer rule Mexico.

The dinosaur is dead, but its economic programs seem destined to endure. The winner, Vicente Fox, widely advertised as the candidate for "change," is expected to maintain the neoliberal policies and corporate globalization programs initiated by the PRI president Salinas in the late '80s and early '90s. It was Salinas who gave NAFTA to Mexico, by presidential fiat, without any debate whatsoever.

In the words of UNAM economist Arturo Ortiz Wadgymar, Fox's economic plan will "perpetuate for another six years the model of neoliberalization and globalization. The big winner in this election was international capital, headed by the United States, who now see legitimized, through the will of the people, a promise that Mexico, through its own volition, accepts the postulates of foreign investment" and that they will support the actions of Fox to court global business interests.

Others on the left insist that, "The PRI and the PAN are the same," that Fox offers no change. This seems true as far as economic policies. Social policies are a different matter. Fox's PAN is further to the right than the PRI. It opposes abortion, and has been accused of xenophobic, even racist tendencies, of attempting to enforce Catholicism as a virtual state religion. It harbors elements that can only be described as fascist. The PAN is big on privatization. The rich seem destined to do well under a Fox government. The poor could very well end up worse off then before. A Fox administration seems possibly more willing than even the PRI of selling off Mexico piece by piece for U.S. dollars.

The PRI wasted no time in imploding following its loss. At least three factions engaged in rancorous infighting over the corpse of the dinosaur. The current president, Zedillo, is assigned much of the blame for this debacle. In PRI-speak, President Zedillo has lost the "moral authority to lead," by his dereliction in allowing an open and transparent election. There has even been talk of kicking him out of the party altogether.

The PRI won only in the eleven poorest, most rural states: the places where the party infrastructure is strongest, where the local political bosses and their "pistoleros," retain public control. Not coincidentally, they are also the regions where the greatest numbers of election "irregularities" occurred.

Cardenas, of the PRD garnered about 17% of the ballots, carrying only his home state of Michoacan. The last few years, the PRD has been losing ground, never regaining the momentum lost when Cardenas had the 1988 election stolen from him by the PRI's "massive fraud." The PRD has been plagued by internal disputes, and has lost strong supporters to other, smaller leftist parties. Among other things, the PRD was this time a victim of "la vota util," a useful vote. Many leftists chose to support Fox, holding their noses in the belief that the most important thing was to topple the PRI.

Cardenas has received some criticism for not throwing his lot in with Fox when it became clear that the PRD would not triumph. But Cardenas' conscience wouldn't let him. He pointed out that Fox offered no real change in policies.

Fox, in a way, won on the coattails of Cardenas and the PRD. Without Cardenas' efforts, beginning in the 1988 election, there would not have been an "open and transparent" election on July 2. It was the PRD and not the PAN, that first challenged the power of the PRI on the national stage. It was the PRD that faced the repression brought down upon them by the powerful dinosaur in the 1990s. It was 600 PRD activists who were assassinated by the PRI in response to their agitation for democracy. Fox might be the face of change in the eyes of the corporate press, but it was Cardenas and the PRD who put their shoulders into the effort to topple the dinosaur. Cardenas insists the PRD will continue as a strong voice of opposition to the globalization agenda of Fox. The PRD has announced they will take no part in Fox's administration.

For his part, Fox has promised to honor the San Andres accords, signed by the Zapatistas and the Government, which the PRI government abrogated even before the ink was dry. Fox has said he is opening channels of communication with the Zapatistas. He has invited Marcos and the leadership of the EZLN to meet with him in the five months before he takes office. During his campaign, Fox claimed he could solve the problem in Chiapas in "15 minutes." It seems likely the situation is a bit more complicated. The "Chiapas problem," could probably be solved relatively quickly, but that would require global capital to forego short term profits, their need for power. In short, Fox would have to renounce neoliberalism altogether, alienate his power bases both at home and abroad. This is just another of the contradictions of Fox's campaign.

Fox also promises that his election marks the end of "presidencialismo," the PRI tradition of strongman style rule of the president. He says he intends to administer programs designed by the will of the people, not to force his agenda on the nation. He promises a cabinet made up of all voices, left and right. He vows to end entrenched corruption, state violence, and the continuing criminal enterprise that is the PRI's legacy. He says he sought the presidency to serve Mexico, not to garner power or amass obscene amounts of ill gotten wealth.

Meanwhile, the U.S. corporate powerhouses and the forces of globalization will continue to wield tremendous influence in the business of governing Mexico. It is clear that the struggle in the U.S. against those corporate forces remains of prime importance to Mexico's future.