PRI Victory Still Disputed

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San Francisco Chronicle interview with Rosario Ibarra Edgar Sanchez is a member of the Political Committee of the Revolutionary Workers Party (PRT), Mexican section of the Fourth International.

Comrades, we are celebrating not only the founding of the Fourth International, but the continuity and legitimacy of the program and the principles of our world party. Let me tell you how I feel about this continuity today in Mexico and about our contribution to that continuity.

We should remember that 50 years ago, when the Fourth International was founded, comrade Trotsky was in Mexico. He was given asylum by the Lazaro Cardenas 2 ANNIVERSARY SUP Revolutionary Party (PRI), won its famous stability for 30 years.

In the 1930s, no one opposed this line successfully in the mass movement. Of course comrade Trotsky was there. And he struggled against this line together with a relatively small group of Mexican comrades. But they weren't strong enough in the working class to change the course of events.

This situation didn't change until the 1968 student movement. A new situation was created. The old reformist, Stalinist ideas were defeated by the upsurge of the new movement. New left-wing and socialist organizations were created. Revolutionary organizations like ours were revitalized.

The youth repudiated the Communist Party and especially the line of Lombardo Toledano. Toledano and his party said that the '68 student movement was a bluff created by the CIA or by the Trotskyists— it was the same for them.

But Toledano didn't get the answer he used to get in the '30s: He himself died at the end of '68. Twenty years later, however, it seems Toledano came back for his revenge against the '68 generation. In this election, the party of Toledano and the absolute majority of the Mexican left are repeating the experience of the Popular 'LEMENT Special to The Chronicle The first woman presidential candidate In Mexico's history says that the mo mentum built up by thr opposition parters in the July f election cannot be stopped Rosario Ibarra de Piedra, candidate of the leftst tinidad Popular (Popular Unity! coalition, human rights advocate, two-time Noll I'rize nominer and, until the election last month, a deputy in the Mexican Con. gress, says that if the opposition remains firmly umed the Institutional Revolution. ary Party 'RD. which has ruled Mexico for almost t0 years, will have to deal with them.

Ibarra said that an official within the povernment told Cardenas that he won the elertion and that on July 16 at a "defend the vote" rally in the calotthe main square in Mexan fits Cardenas had pubhely an nounced that he will make public the nante of the person who informed him of this on December 1" when the congress convenes and the new president is officially received and delivers his traditional accep. lance speech.

The opposition says it bas dorumenta lion of election fraud from its own observ ers. who compiled data and tallied the vote it the polling plares independently from the povernment, and of intimidation and hallot stuffing from the labor unions and other organizations.

'The phenomenon of Cardenas i total ly new and different in Metin.

= Recario Ibarra lied up brhund ham because thay think te Tepresents change I don 1 know if thing› would hase prefereed to um meses ehe saud, throwing up her hands and laughing In 1877, she founded the National (om mitter 10 Delend Political Prisoners, Fugilives, Exiles and Disappeared Persons, and in 1979 she was one of the leaders in the formation of the National Front Against Repression.

She is proud of the accomplishments of the committee for the "disappeared, ." but distressed that there is still much to do.

"This month we commemorate the an. niversary of our first hunger strike. through that strike we forced the govern. ment to decree an amnesty and 1500 politi cal prisoners were freed," she raid. "In 10 years we have been able to free 148 disap. peared. We know of 547 more who are still detained. The government had never neror. nized that they held these prople. Many told us they were freed to roam around on their own, but were threatened with further pun ishment if they told their stories."

A "number of political organizations lank note of my work," and she was asked to be the presidential candidate of the Revolu. tonary Workers Party in the 1982 election. She received enough votes to become a deputy in the Chamber of Depulles.

"I don't want you to get the impression that 1 have barome egotistical," Ibarra said "but I think that my candidacy in '82 was an Important signal, a catalyst for women to lake a more active role because they saw that a woman just like them could become involved. could run for office. They asked themselves. 'if shr ran do i what um!

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