The Alianza De Camioneros and the Political Culture of P.R.I
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO Wheels of Government: The Alianza de Camioneros and the Political Culture of P.R.I. Rule, 1929-1981 A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in History by Michael Joseph Lettieri Committee in Charge: Eric Van Young, Chair Roderic Ai Camp David FitzGerald Nancy Kwak Everard Meade Pamela Radcliff © Michael Joseph Lettieri, 2014 All rights reserved. The Dissertation of Michael Joseph Lettieri is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm and electronically: ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Chair University of California, San Diego 2014 iii DEDICATION For my family. iv EPIGRAPH “Los intermediarios eran una pieza básica del orden político. Con ellos podía hacerse mucho, sin ellos, casi nada.” – Fernando Escalante Gonzalbo, Ciudadanos Imaginarios v TABLE OF CONTENTS Signature Page ...................................................................................................................iii Dedication .......................................................................................................................... iv Epigraph .............................................................................................................................. v Table of Contents ............................................................................................................... vi List of Abbreviations ........................................................................................................ vii List of Figures .................................................................................................................. viii List of Tables ..................................................................................................................... ix Preface ................................................................................................................................. x Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ xi Vita ................................................................................................................................... xiv Abstract of the Dissertation .............................................................................................. xv Introduction: The Leviathan and the Octopus .................................................................. 1 Part I: Antonio Díaz Lombardo and the Emergence of the Intertwined Relationship ... 30 Chapter One: The Struggle for Survival (1923-1940) .................................................. 33 Chapter Two: In from the Cold (1940-1954) ................................................................ 83 Part II: José Valdovinos, Isidoro Rodríguez, Rubén Figueroa, and the PRI System ... 139 Chapter Three: José Valdovinos and the Power of the Public .................................... 142 Chapter Four: Isidoro Rodríguez Ruiz and the Politics of Organization .................... 191 Chapter Five: Rubén Figueroa and the Paths of Power .............................................. 248 Conclusion: Héctor Hernández Casanova and the Political Culture of PRI Rule ......... 298 Appendices ...................................................................................................................... 322 Appendix 1 .................................................................................................................. 322 Appendix 2 .................................................................................................................. 324 Appendix 3 .................................................................................................................. 325 Appendix 4 .................................................................................................................. 326 Appendix 5 .................................................................................................................. 326 Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 327 vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ACRM Alianza de Camioneros de la República Mexicana ACS Alianza de Camioneros del Sur CGT Confederación General de Trabajadores CNC Confederación Nacional Campesina CNTC Cámara Nacional de Transportes y Comunicaciones CNOP Confederación Nacional de Organizaciones Populares CRB Comisión del Río Balsas CROM Confederación Regional Obrera Mexicana CTM Confederación de Trabajadores de México CU Ciudad Universitaria DF Distrito Federal DFS Dirección Federal de Seguridad DGIPS Dirección General de Investigaciones Políticas y Sociales FEU Federación de Estudiantes Universitarios FSTSE Federación de Sindicatos de Trabajadores al Servicio del Estado GCE Gran Comisión Estudiantil IMSS Instituto Mexicano de Seguro Social LVGC Ley de Vías Generales de Comunicación Organizaciones Unidas Organizaciones Unidas de Autos de Alquiler PEMEX Petroleos Mexicanos PNR Partido Nacional Revolucionario PRI Partido Revolucionario Institucional PRM Partido de la Revolución Mexicana Postergados Sindicato de Trabajadores Postergados por la Alianza de Camioneros de México SCOP Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Obras Públicas SCT Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes UNAM Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Alianza buses and political theater ..................................................................... 6 Figure 2: Overcrowding on buses in 1958. ...................................................................... 21 Figure 3: 1920s bus transportation in Mexico City.. ....................................................... 35 Figure 4: Antonio Díaz Lombardo in Heraldo Camionero, February, 1931. .................. 40 Figure 5: Camioneros protesting in the congressional galleries. ..................................... 75 Figure 6: Campaigning in Guerrero. .............................................................................. 103 Figure 7: Bus owner and employees, 1948. ................................................................... 117 Figure 8: Adolfo Ruiz Cortines and Ernesto Uruchurtu inspect new buses with José Valdovinos. ............................................................................................................. 156 Figure 9: Urban buses transport acarreados in 1958. ................................................... 158 Figure 10: Popular visions of the Alianza. .................................................................... 167 Figure 11: Middle-class attitudes toward protest. .......................................................... 179 Figure 12: Political Trampolines.. ................................................................................. 225 Figure 13: Buses to transport peasants in support of Rubén Figueroa's gubernatorial campaign. ................................................................................................................ 251 Figure 14: Rubén Figueroa and Luis Echeverría inaugurate Mexicorama's tourist bus service.. ................................................................................................................... 273 Figure 15: La Prensa reacts to the municipalization of urban bus transportation. ........ 309 Figure 16: Acarreados and housewives from Colonia Bondojito transported on Alianza buses. ....................................................................................................................... 317 Figure 17: Mexico City’s bus network, ca. 1931. .......................................................... 322 Figure 18: Mexico City’s bus network, ca. 1949. .......................................................... 323 Figure 19: Mexico City’s bus network, ca. 1969. .......................................................... 323 viii LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Commonly appearing words and phrases from the 1939 and 1958 congressional debates over autotransportation. ............................................................................. 324 Table 2: Conventional vs. Chato bus income and expenditure, per day. Study presented to the Comisión Mixta de Estudio en el Conflicto Obrero-Patronal de las Lineas de Transporte de Pasajeros del D.F., reprinted in El Informador Camionero, February, 1958......................................................................................................................... 325 Table 3: List of Congressional Deputies with ties to the Alianza de Camioneros de México. ................................................................................................................... 326 Table 4: Mexico City camioneros serving as CNOP Transportation Secretary ............ 326 ix PREFACE The 1999 film La Ley de Herodes is not a classic tale of redemption. In it, Vargas, the protagonist, almost accidentally becomes mayor of the invented Mexican town of San Pedro de los Saguaros. As the tale unfolds, Vargas slips into a moral abyss of corruption, deceit, and violence, ending up not dead or imprisoned but in a final plot twist,