Resumo

PACHECO MENDEZ, Guadalupe. The PRI: Factions and Conflict in the Eve of the Electoral Process of 2006. Polít. gob [online]. 2009, vol.16, n.1, pp.157-190. ISSN 1665-2037.

Since July 2000, several features characterize the PRI's internal evolution: the need to fill the political vacuum in its internal structure of authority left by the loss of the presidency; the organizational heterogeneity of its components; the clustering of its leaders in two groups (where the PRI governors played a decisive political role); and the reshuffling of the alliances between the top party caucuses. At the end of 2004, as the 2006 presidential election was getting closer, the internal conflicts concerning the rules to choose a presidential candidate and to substitute the main national party leader deepened. In the struggle to control these positions, two groups tried to reach an agreement that could later be formalized through a statutory reform, which failed to pass in the National Assembly. Consequently the PRI entered the 20052006 presidential campaign profoundly divided.

Palavras-chave : PRI governors; PRI presidential candidate; party leadership; internal relationship of forces; statutes reforms.