Leticia Neria PhD thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText ...

the harvest as much as possible. This policy was intended to make Mexico self-
sufficient in agriculture. However, the expected growth in the agricultural sector never
came; years of neglect meant that far more was needed. 57 The problem did not start
during Echeverría’s term but in the mid-1960s. 58 The crisis and poverty of the Mexican
countryside and the peasants is portrayed and discussed in Los Agachados and in some
episodes of La Familia Burrón when they visit their friend Briagoberto Memelas, a
rural cacique, as well as in the film Calzonzin Inspector, in which all the inhabitants of
the little town San Garabato suffer the ravages of crisis.
Echeverría ‘promoted himself outside Mexico, traveling around the world,
including to communist or left-leaning countries such as Chile, Cuba, China, East
Germany and the USSR’ 59 trying to become the leader of the third world, believing that
after his presidential term, he could become General Secretary of the UN. 60 He also
attended the United Nations to support the accession of China. His support of China was
understood, in a way, as a message that Mexico would not do what the United States
wanted it to. 61 However, some in the private sector started to believe that Echeverría had
left wing tendencies, and were not pleased with some of his decisions. Links between
the state and the private sector diminished, and the two sides openly disagreed. 62
Echeverría, in attempting to gain the confidence of those who opposed the
government in 1968, asked young people, mainly graduates of UNAM and other public
schools, to be part of his administration. Some were reluctant, but others, many with no
history of activity in PRI, considered it an opportunity, and they joined the government:
‘Los profesionistas, en especial economistas y politólogos, aceptan su llamado al
57
José Agustín, Tragicomedia Mexicana 2… p. 24.
58
Gustavo Gordillo, ‘La problemática del campo en la modernización’, in México a fines de siglo… p.
309.
59
Krauze, La presidencia imperial… p. 374.
60
Personal communication with Carlos Montemayor, 15 December 2008.
61
José Agustín, Tragicomedia mexicana 2… p. 38.
62
Basañez, El pulso de los sexenios… pp. 44, 55, 59.
52