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

posibilidad, para las víctimas directas de la represión ésta era solamente un engaño’. 76
Nevertheless, his populist speeches made the private sector suspect that the President
was too radical and dangerous for their interests. 77 He approached Fidel Castro and gave
asylum to those members of Salvador Allende’s government in Chile who were exiled
after the coup d’état. 78 But he did not offer support for the private sector, which did not
want to follow the new path promoted by the government. 79 The private sector found
the President too close to the communists, and weak on policies that satisfied their
interests. Little by little, the private sector turned against the President, not only with
speeches and other communications, but also by moving money out of the country and
making the dollar the currency for business transactions. 80 This affected the Mexican
economy in a serious way.
The most famous case regarding the confrontation between Echeverría and the
private sector was the ‘Excélsior affair’. Since 1972 the private sector had been
uncomfortable about the leftist editorial position of the newspaper Excélsior. The
business leader Juan Sánchez Navarro discussed their concerns with the President,
asking for his help in organising a boycott against the newspaper. Echeverría suggested
they remove all their advertising because that was how the newspaper received its
income. They agreed, but the president told Julio Scherer, the director of Excélsior at
the time, that the private sector was planning to cancel their advertising, and that he
could help by replacing it with advertising from state-owned enterprises. Thus, the
newspaper might survive the boycott. Of course, the private sector leaders did not know
this. Both Excélsior and the businessmen suffered the consequences of these actions.
Echeverría pushed the private sector to continue with their plan, and at the same time
76 Marco Bellingeri, ‘La imposibilidad del odio’, La transición interrumpida… pp. 49-73 (p. 62).
77 Basañez, El pulso de los sexenios… p. 49.
78 José Agustín, Tragicomedia mexicana 2… p. 41.
79 Cordera, ‘Del desarrollo como crisis…’, p. 273.
80 José Agustín, Tragicomedia Mexicana 2… p. 43.
56