1994

I see a Mexico hungry and thirsty for justice.

Today, in the Mexico of 1994 that we're experiencing,

we have an urgent need to restore law and order,

to restore a sense of civility and respect for life.

The way we see it, the year 1994 started in 1992,

and ended halfway through 1995.

Mexico was aggrieved, it had been wronged, vexed.

It was a dark year... in my opinion.

Mexico suddenly became brutal, violent, and dark.

Hurray for the Institutional Revolutionary Party!

-Hurray for Mexico! -Hurray!

I think Mexico wasn't ready for a change so drastic

as the one he wanted to bring about.

I assure you, here in Tijuana and in Baja California,

we're going to win!

What began as a dream full of hope,

ended in a brutal awakening of unforeseen problems.

If Luis Donaldo had been president, things would be different now.

I couldn't see whom the bullet hit, or even if it came from my gun.

They shot him!

A NETFLIX ORIGINAL DOCUMENTARY SERIES

...Attorney General's Office.

Two shots: one in the head, another in the stomach.

-There's no official statement. -...coward.

He was attacked, receiving two gunshot injuries.

There's another version going around

saying he may have received a third gunshot in the head.

There's absolute secrecy.

I see a Mexico hungry and thirsty for justice.

The treaty... the best paid...

The flower of the word will not die.

For all the people, light. For all the people, everything.

State problems, scams and more.

...opened fire.

For Mexicans I state my commitment to reform power.

Mexico! Mexico! Mexico!

Salinas! Salinas! Salinas!

If you don't mind, let's begin with your presentation.

Would you like a summary of my curriculum vitae?

My name is Carlos Salinas de Gortari.

I was President of Mexico from 1988 to 1994.

Salinas! Salinas! Salinas!

This historic moment is truly majestic.

The arrival of incoming president Carlos Salinas de Gortari.

Also clapping, outgoing president Miguel de la Madrid.

I hereby solemnly swear to uphold and enforce

the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States

and to serve as its president, as per the will of the people.

Were I to fail, may the nation demand it from me.

Machiavelli said that reformers

faced a huge disadvantage:

because the changes they propose,

often take a while to impact those who'll benefit from them,

while the negative effects of reforms are felt immediately.

I was told about a young man who was returning from

getting his Master's degree in the U.S.

I was told he was not only very talented,

but also socially and politically restless.

I found quite attractive this description

of a young man named: Luis Donaldo Colosio.

I met with him and immediately asked him to be my collaborator.

I come from a small town, Magdalena, Sonora.

-My father raised me... -Magdalena de Kino.

Exactly.

My dad was Mayor of Magdalena.

He told me one of his great joys was walking down the street

with more friends than he had before taking office.

He raised you as a PRI member and to continue in the party.

My dad taught me humility.

To keep my feet firmly on the ground.

-To stay grounded. -Must be hard, in your sphere.

That's why I call him all the time.

I first met Donaldo in 1983.

SOLIDARITY'S GENERAL COORDINATOR

And since that first year, I was able to notice

the high esteem, the respect, and the affection

that Carlos Salinas felt for Luis Donaldo Colosio.

He was an extremely discreet guy.

COLOSIO'S PRIVATE SECRETARY

He clearly understood the role he had to play at any given time.

In 1988, I came back from Oxford University.

When I came back to Mexico, I wanted to get into politics.

POLITICIAN AND COLOSIO'S FRIEND

I'd already done small stuff, so I sought out Luis Donaldo.

I wanted to meet him, no one else,

because it seemed to me he was a genuine guy.

An honest man.

I got the impression he was a man of integrity.

He wanted to change politics, the whole Mexican political system.

Donaldo was a true democrat, which made him an oddity.

He strove for renewal.

That's what drew me to him when we first met.

Fellow PRI party members, young party members,

let's give a warm welcome

to those whom this council have chosen to lead our party!

As leaders, Luis Donaldo Colosio and Rafael Rodríguez Barrera

will reinforce the revolutionary commitment of our national leader

and President of Mexico, Carlos Salinas de Gortari.

Jorge de la Vega Domínguez, as President,

and Manuel Camacho Solís as General Secretary,

have made their mark in our political institution.

To the men and women of the PRI party,

a few moments ago, when I was sworn in,

I fully exercised my freedom.

We are committed to reform the party,

as demanded and required by the general populace,

which are the basis of our organization.

PRI must remain at the forefront of politics,

or risk disowning its own historic foundations.

We don't want PRI members comfortable in their inertia,

but striving towards change.

Within PRI, there was an old guard who were bothered by Colosio

because of his projects of reform and change.

They thought he was too young to handle the enormity of the job.

They placed bets about when he would fail.

But he stood his ground, got things done, did his job.

And a little over a year later, they started calling him "sir,"

as well as "Party President" and "Leader."

Unlike all the other party leaders we'd had until then...

COLOSIO'S CAMPAIGN STAFF

...he wasn't part of Mexico's oligarchy.

He didn't come from wealth, or a family of politicians.

He wasn't privileged.

He got to where he was because of his hard work and character.

Back then, there were two kinds of actors

in PRI's political system.

The "dinosaurs" rejected change, and wanted PRI to be an appendix

of the government and the current president.

Whereas us reformists wanted to change everything.

I wanted to change everything, even the party's name.

Mexico wasn't ready for such a drastic change

as the one he wanted to bring about.

He was going to shatter from the inside

the regime of privilege and injustice we lived in.

So, you want democracy. Which democracy?

-Political democracy. -According to PRI's definition?

Or the democracy that maybe we could--

Democracy as a way of life, as a way of thinking

where citizen engagement

through a party like ours, results in collective well-being.

I guess Luis Donaldo must have thought,

together with party leaders and President Salinas himself,

that the PRI party needed a change.

No wonder, given that the 1988 election results had been contested,

which casted doubt, so to say, on the old party structures.

The party currently in power has shown us today

its determination to contravene the will of the people.

ACTIVIST

All these are marked in favor of the Institutional Revolutionary Party.

Our community received many letters

addressed to dead people, thanking them for their vote.

My grandma is still voting.

My grandma, my father, everyone. And they're all dead.

Donaldo was Salinas' campaign chairman,

and he knew that PRI was rotten to the core.

He, Salinas, and Manuel Camacho experienced it quite brutally

during the '88 elections.

In fact, Salinas probably didn't win the election.

JOURNALIST AND COLOSIO'S FRIEND

Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas did.

So, they had to steal the elections.

Afterwards, we found out...

PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (1988)

...that votes weren't tallied in 45% of the polling places.

Ballot boxes were stolen.

A number of ballots ended up in ravines and landfills.

Opposing party representatives were kicked out at gunpoint, etc.

What do you say to the accusations of fraud by the opposition?

As I've said, it's nothing but dirty campaign tactics.

But I trust these elections will be clean, transparent, and reliable.

Sir, this way.

This way.

President Gortari is scared,

because despite bribing voters with cash and beans,

they have turned their backs on him.

And rightly so.

Back in 1976, there was only one presidential candidate from PRI.

Twelve years later, in 1988, we had a tight presidential race.

But PRI wasn't used to that kind of competition.

I declared the one-party era officially over,

so the party would see that times had changed.

Our party and our country have lived in peace.

We haven't been involved in revolutions, coups, or wars.

Sixty years of peace without any issues.

PRI'S HISTORIC LEADER

We haven't had magnicides, like in other countries.

I remember thinking about the case of Mexico

along these lines:

Mexico is the perfect dictatorship.

It's a camouflaged dictatorship.

But if you dig deep, it does have all elements of a dictatorship...

LITERATURE NOBEL PRIZE

...permanence. Not of a man, but of a party.

An undefeatable party that allows enough space for criticism,

as long as it's the useful kind that makes it look democratic.

However, it suppresses all criticism that threatens its permanence.

Colosio once told me that PRI, as a party and as a system,

needed a change.

I think that he was driven by the strong belief

that the time for PRI authoritarianism