1976 Mexican general election

Before the electoral reform of 1977, only four political parties were allowed to participate in the elections: the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the Popular Socialist Party (PPS), the Authentic Party of the Mexican Revolution (PARM) and the right-wing National Action Party (PAN), which was practically the only real opposition party at the time.[5]

The campaign and the elections took place during a tense period: the economic crisis, the leftist guerrilla uprisings in some parts of the country and the Dirty War the government took against them, were some of many issues that outgoing President Luis Echeverría faced and which jeopardised the power of the ruling PRI.

Some of the PRI contenders for the party's 1976 presidential candidacy were:

• Mario Moya Palencia (Secretary of the Interior). He was initially perceived as the natural candidate to succeed President Luis Echeverría, given that Echeverría and his predecessor Gustavo Díaz Ordaz had been Secretaries of the Interior immediately prior to receiving the presidential nomination. Moya Palencia was also reported to have the support of the Army and most of the State Governors for his candidacy.[6]

• Porfirio Muñoz Ledo (Secretary of Labor). He was noted for his large government experience at his relatively young age, having had a meteoric rise in the PRI ranks. He was reported to have the support of the Confederation of Mexican Workers in his bid for the presidency.[6]

• Augusto Gómez Villanueva (Secretary of Agrarian Reform). Close to President Echeverría, his previous experience as President of the National Peasants' Confederation as well as his tenure as Secretary of Agrarian Reform solidified his leadership of the peasant sector, which supported his presidential bid.[6]

• José López Portillo (Secretary of Finance). He had little political experience - having previously been a law teacher and later working as a government bureaucrat-, but he had the particular advantage of being a childhood friend of President Echeverría, to whom he owed his government career, including his arrival at the Secretariat of Finance in 1973. López Portillo was not initially considered a serious contender for the PRI's presidential candidacy, as he didn't seem to have the support of any of the PRI's sectors for his bid, and he was relatively ignored by reporters and other politicians in comparison to the aforementioned contenders.[6]

In October 1974, the Instituto Mexicano de Opinión Pública (IMOP) carried out, for the first time in Mexican politics, an opinion poll to reveal the public's perceptions of the contenders and their chances to obtain the PRI presidential candidacy in 1976 and succeed Echeverría. 2,730 people were asked to choose which contender, in their opinion, better fit the following criteria:

Porfirio Muñoz Ledo was one of the main contenders for the PRI presidential candidacy. He was ultimately not the one chosen by President Echeverría to succeed him, but he maintained considerable power after being appointed as President of the PRI's National Executive Committee and General Coordinator of López Portillo's campaign.

A childhood friend of President Echeverría, Secretary of Finance José López Portillo was not initially considered a serious contender for the PRI presidential candidacy by the media nor by other politicians. He was ultimately chosen by Echeverría as his successor, to the surprise of the general public and the political establishment.

Muñoz Ledo would later recall that during this period, he received a visit from President Echeverría. During the meeting at Muñoz Ledo's house, Echeverría went to the garden and commented that it was "too small to receive delegations". Muñoz Ledo understood the phrase as meaning that he would be the chosen one to succeed him as President, interpreting Echeverría's comment as referring to the PRI delegations that would visit his house to congratulate him on his nomination, and so he decided to buy the land that was behind the garden so as to enlarge it. However, he would later discover that he had misinterpreted Echeverría's comment, and that he wasn't his chosen candidate.[9]

In June 1975, Echeverría privately told López Portillo that he would be his successor,[10] and on 5 October he was officially nominated by the PRI as its presidential candidate for the 1976 elections.[11] The aforementioned Muñoz Ledo was then appointed both President of the PRI's National Executive Committee as well as General Coordinator of López Portillo's campaign,[12] while López Portillo appointed Julio Rodolfo Moctezuma as director of the party's Instituto de Estudios Políticos, Económicos y Sociales (IEPES).[13]

Echeverría would later state that he chose López Portillo to succeed him because, as President, "I was aware that the country's main problem was the financial one", which should be faced by his Secretary of Finance, "who had shared with me the attacks of a reactionary and obtuse private sector, which did not hesitate to place its funds abroad in their eagerness to break me down".[10]

López Portillo campaign buttons.

Valentín Campa ran as a write-in candidate for the Mexican Communist Party.

The PPS and the PARM supported López Portillo's candidacy, as they had traditionally done with previous candidates for the PRI.

At the time, the opposition party PAN was going through internal conflicts and, for the first time upon its foundation, was unable to nominate a candidate for the 1976 presidential elections.

On the other hand, the Mexican Communist Party nominated Valentín Campa as their presidential candidate. At the time, however, this party had no official registry and was not allowed to participate in elections, so Campa's candidacy was not officially recognized and he didn't have access to the media. He had to run as a write-in candidate, as he would not appear in the ballots.[14]

These factors led to López Portillo effectively running unopposed. His campaign echoed this "unanimous" support for him, and his slogan was "La solución somos todos" ("All of us are the solution"). López Portillo later joked that, due to running without opposition, it would have been enough for "his mother's vote for him" to win the election.[15]

López Portillo had been separated from his wife Carmen Romano for some time, but upon being nominated by the PRI as its presidential candidate, the two of them were persuaded by PRI advisers to reunite and to maintain the appearance of a solid marriage, so as to not alienate the largely conservative, catholic populace.[16]

Popular Cuban singer Celia Cruz recorded a jingle for the López Portillo campaign, titled "¿Dónde estás, José?" ("Where are you, José"?). Other entertainers such as Enrique Guzmán and María Elena Velasco performed on an LP issued by the López Portillo campaign.[17][18]

In his campaign, López Portillo defended the infamous acarreo ("hauling", the practice of trucking PRI supporters to rallies to cheer its candidates in exchange for gifts of some kind),[19] saying that the attendees "are not ‘hauled’, they are ‘transported’ by the Party's own men and forces", adding that "All organized truck drivers in Mexico are part of the PRI and it is a tradition for them to take their vehicles to transport people to public events".[20] He further justified in his autobiography that there was "no reason not to facilitate, for example, to our peasants, transportation to public meetings, who concur, after all, to communicate with a System that governs them, through understandable acts in which they participate, see, hear, learn, express themselves and even, are distracted with trips and companies. The Party can, the Party must."[21]

There were many rumours that outgoing president Luis Echeverría was planning to carry out a coup d'état against his own candidate, López Portillo, to perpetuate himself in power. On August 13, the Liga Comunista 23 de Septiembre tried to kidnap Margarita López Portillo, sister of the president elect; the attempt failed and the Liga's leader, David Jiménez Sarmiento, was killed by security forces during the incident.[24]

In the end, López Portillo took office as scheduled on December 1 without further incidents.