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Representing revolution: The Mexican Congress and the originsof single-party rule, 1916-1934 Item Type text; Dissertation-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Avent, Glenn James Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 23/09/2021 12:54:01 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/280671 REPRESENTING REVOLUTION: THE MEXICAN CONGRESS AND THE ORIGINS OF SINGLE-PARTY RULE, 1916-1934 by Glenn James A vent A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2 0 0 4 UMI Number: 3158067 INFORMATION TO USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMI UMI Microform 3158067 Copyright 2005 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 2 The University of Arizona ® Graduate College As members of the Final Examination Committee, we certify that we have read the dissertation prepared by GLENN JAMES AVENT entitled REPRESENTING REVOLUTION: THE MEXICAN CONGRESS AND THE ORIGINS OF SINGLE-PARTY RULE, 1916-1934 and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilhng the dissertation requirement for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY iuUJUi£0U Z) </ William Beezwy t datT Z! — Dec l, Uo'l Kevm Gosner date Bert Barickman date date Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent upon the candidate's submission of the final copies of the dissertation to the Graduate College. I hereby certify that I have read this dissertation prepared under my direction and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement. Dissertation Director: ^A^llia^h Beezley 3 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at The University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the head of the major department or the Dean of the Graduate College when in his or her judgment the proposed use of the material is in the interests of scholarship. In all other instances, however, permission must be obtained from the author. SIGNED: 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES 5 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 6 ABSTRACT 7 INTRODUCTION 8 CHAPTER 1: POLITICAL LIFE IN THE ERA OF HEROIC LEADERSHIP 31 CHAPTER 2: FORMATION AND DIVISION OF THE OBREGONISTA ALLIANCE IN CONGRESS 69 CHAPTER 3: TURNING POINT, 1924 116 CHAPTER 4: THE END OF AN ERA 163 CHAPTER 5: HONOUR, POWER, AND PRIVILEGE IN THE CREATION OF MEXICO'S NEW POLITICAL ELITE 200 CONCLUSION 246 REFERENCES 257 5 LIST OF TABLES TABLE 1, Chamber of Deputies Seats by Legislature (1917-1934) 32 TABLE 2, Total Pool of Deputies (1917-1934) 37 TABLE 3, Election of Deputies by Total Times Elected (1917-1934) 38 TABLE 4, Seats Held by Deputies With and Without Prior Experience (1917-1934)....38 TABLE 5, Seats Held by Deputies With Prior Experience, by State (1917-1934) 43 TABLE 6, Occupied Two-Year Senate Seats (1918-1934) 45 TABLE 7, Total Pool of Senators (1918-1934) 46 TABLE 8, Election of Senators by Times Elected (1918-1934) 46 TABLE 9, Seats Held by Senators With and Without Prior Experience (1918-1934) 46 TABLE 10, Movement Between the Chamber of Deputies and Senate (1917-1934) 46 TABLE 11, Experience of Deputies Holding Committee Posts (1917-1934) 48 TABLE 12, Deputies on "Important" and "Unimportant" Committees (1917-1934) 49 TABLE 13, Committee Service of Re-elected Deputies (1917-1934) 50 TABLE 14, Specialization in Committee Service of Re-elected Deputies 50 TABLE 15, Committee Posts Held by T=1 Deputies, Later Re-elected and Not Re-elected (1917-1934) 51 TABLE 16, Committee Service of T=1 Deputies, Later Re-elected and Not Re-elected (1917-1934) 51 6 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Political Organizations: ASP Alianza de Partido Socialistas (1924-1925) BRC (a) Bloque Regional Confederado (1922-1923) BRC (b) Bloque Revolutionario Coaligado (1922-1924) BRO Bloque Revolucionario Obregonista (1925-19 BSP Bloque Socialista Parliamentario (1924) CDN Comite Directivo Nacional (of the PNR) (1929-1938) CDO Centro Director Obregonista (1927-1928) CEN Comite Ejecutivo Nacional (of the PNR) (1929-1938) CGT Confederacion General de Trabajadores (1921 - ) CNC Confederacion Nacional Campesina (1938- ) CROM Confederacion Regional Obrera Mexicana (1918- ) CTM Confederacion de Trabajadores de Mexicano (1936- ) LNC Liga Nacional Campesina (1923-1933) PCN Partido Cooperatista Nacional (1917-1923) PLC Partido Liberal Constitucionalista (1916-1924) PLM (a) Partido Laborista Mexicano (1919-1940) PLM (b) Partido Liberal Mexicano (1906-1915) PNA Partido Nacional Agrarista (1919-1940) PNAR Partido Nacional Antireeleccionista (1909-1940) PNR Partido Nacional Revolucionario (1929-1938) Sources Cited: ACS Archivo de la Camara de Senadores AGN-OC Archivo General de la Nacion, Fondo Presidentes, Obregon-Calles AGN-AR Archivo General de la Nacion, Fondo Presidentes, Abelardo Rodriguez AGN-LC Archive General de la Nacion, Fondo Presidentes, Lazaro Cardenas APEC Archivo Plutarco Elias Calles 7 ABSTRACT This dissertation provides an institutional history of the Mexican Congress, exploring the origins of single-party rule in Mexico. The investigation offers a revised interpretation of the evolution of Mexico's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI, originally known as the National Revolutionary Party, or PNR), the development of executive power over the legislative branch, and the emergence of a new political elite. The research demonstrates that, contrary to conventional explanations, the official revolutionary party did not result from a momentary crisis provoked by the 1928 assassination of President-Elect Alvaro Obregon. Instead, it evolved over the previous decade through a process of development occurring within and around the Congress. Alliances between political parties and congressional blocs negotiated during the formative era of the 1920s created the foundation for the later emergence of the official revolutionary party. The rapid spread of the PNR, and its overwhelming success in the 1930 elections, occurred because the party was built upon these pre-existing structures. The study also demonstrates that Presidential dominance of the Congress, or "Presidentialism," did not derive entirely from law or the structure of the republican system of government, as has often been argued, but rather developed incrementally in conjunction with the evolution of party organization. In effect, the party became the mechanism for executive dominance. The investigation concludes with an examination of the role of honour and extra-legal privilege in the creation and definition of a new political elite. 8 INTRODUCTION Each public official is a live cell of power and embodies in his person a fragment of authority. The first magistrate produces the administrative body by mitosis. All the functionaries free within themselves peculiar forces of dominion that are put into play through the position they fill. Therefore, the result of the totality of those cells is an executive, judicial, legislative, and administrative body of a volume greater than the sum of its parts. The deputy has his privileges, the policeman his uniform, and the usher his livery; they are a piece of legislature, a piece of police, a piece of tribunal. Ezequiel Martinez Estrada, X-Ray of the Pampa [...] the state is less an expression of the dominant class, at least in origin, than the dominant class is a result of the actions of the state. Octavio Paz, The Other Mexico: Critique of the Pyramid Gunfire erupted during a session of the Chamber of Deputies sometime on the afternoon of September 11, 1935. The shootout left two representatives dead and resulted in the expulsion of seventeen Deputies from the Congress.' Participants on both sides of the conflict belonged to the Partido Nacional Revolucionario (National Revolutionary Party; PNR), the organization that controlled the overwhelming majority of seats in both the upper and lower Chambers of Mexico's bicameral Congress. While collectively able to dominate the Congress, tensions between hostile "red" and "white" factions split the party. The red faction, known also as the ala izquierda (left wing) and composed of those representatives associated with Lazaro Cardenas (President 1934-1940), was the largest. Both victims of the shooting were members of the Cardenista group. The minority, who ' Diario de los Debates de la Cdmara de Dipulados, XXXVI Legislatura, Afio II, Pen'odo Ordinario, 12 Septiembre, 1935, num. 6, pp. 5-10. 9 received the blame for the incident and were removed from their seats in the Chamber as a result, were loyalists of Plutarco EHas Calles (President 1924-1928). As the self-styled jefe maximo, Calles had wielded power over the federal government from behind the scenes since the death of President-Elect Alvaro Obregon in 1928. The expulsion of the Callistas from Congress represented the culmination of conflict between the two groups and ended the dominance of the former President.