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By Jen Gomez
Arizona Daily Wildcat
September 19, 1996
A prominent player in Mexican politics will speak tonight on the hot and controversial topics in his country.Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, founder and former president of the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution of Mexico, will speak at 7:30 p.m. in Harvill Room 150.
He will address the following issues: United States-Mexico trade ties in the aftermath of NAFTA, immigrant workers and the new age of bilateral ties, the economic and political crises in Mexico and its impact on the United States and alternatives and proposals for a democratic and political transition.
Cardenas' lecture will kick off the Latin American Area Center's fall lecture series, "?Hacia Donde Va Mexico?" (Where is Mexico headed?).
Raul Saba, associate director of the LAAC, said the series is trying to bring a better understanding of where Mexico is going as a nation, as a people, politically and socially.
"It's important students attend the whole series so they understand what's going on with Mexico and its future, (and hear it) from the very leaders of this revolution of Mexican politics," he said.
The series brings in speakers who represent various Mexican political perspectives, such as the center-right National Action Party (PAN) and the Institutional Revolution Party (PRI), which has dominated Mexican politics for 70 years and is more to the center politically than PAN and PRD.
Other speakers in the series will be: Carlos Castillo Peraza, former president and current secretary of International Relations of PAN, on Oct. 28 and 29; and Alejandro Sobarzo, secretary of International Affairs of PRI, in mid-November.
Cardenas, however, is more widely known and recognized because of his long-term career in Mexican politics.
"Cardenas is the pre-eminent figure of the left in Mexico and is known both nationally and internationally. He was their presidential candidate and possibly could be again," Saba said.
In 1988, Cardenas was the presidential candidate of the National Democratic Front (FDN) and in 1994 he represented the PRD in the presidential elections. Before his presidential bids he was the governor of his home state Michoacan. His father, Lazaro Cardenas served as the president of Mexico from 1934 to 1940.
Cardenas is not getting paid to speak, but the Latin American Area Center and other community sponsors helped pay for his flight and lodging expenses.
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