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I knew Marco since April 1989, Rosa Albina Garavito introduced it to me. At that time he was a senior officer of the old Sedue, he had a double function, managing the secretary and being part of the group of advisors of the then president Carlos Salinas de Gortari through Patricio Chirinos, his immediate boss. Like all political consultancies, there was a timely monitoring of the Mexican reality, research on specific topics and a look at the international environment.
The political situation in those years was extremely confrontational and Marco always knew what was the topic that could interest the president and, above all, be useful to him. He was a man who could, in a minute, find the necessary conceptual turn to set the right direction for a strategic proposal that was unfinished. He had a solid academic background and was a tireless reader of various genres.
Marco Bernal had just finished studying a master’s degree at El Colegio de México, where he met Manuel Camacho Solís, whom he always respected but then had to confront politically. Fate led them to two different political groups. He was in the ranks that supported the candidacy of Luis Donaldo Colosio. When Colosio is appointed Secretary of Social Development, he is named president of the National Solidarity Institute. In that position, Bernal once again shows his great political capacity by integrating a work team that came from different political groups of that network called PRI.
There he stands out for forming the solidarity cadres that were going to participate in the probable campaign of Luis Donado Colosio, an intense and stressful job, because every week the different groups who graduated from the institute presented themselves with the President of the Republic in an act in which they made a political statement that could bother or bother some members of the cabinet or social sectors and even the head of the Executive himself. Marco passed the test with an outstanding grade.
This was proven when Colosio was elected as a candidate for the Presidency of the Republic, who appointed him deputy coordinator of foresight, the name of the position was the recognition of the enormous capacity that Marco had to foresee future problems. What the candidate asked of him was the vision of the future, what challenges had to be faced and how to do it. Something that is easy to say but is the most complicated thing in political advice. I remember that in the press’s desire to get ahead of the future, the newspaper team made The Financier a prospect trying to guess who of the eight people in Colosio’s campaign coordination would be the next candidate for the presidency of the Republic, Bernal’s name was one of the possible ones.
Unlike the rest of the sub-coordinators who saw Ernesto Zedillo’s arrival to the presidential campaign coordination as an intruder, Marco showed another of his facets that he maintained throughout his career, total institutionality and respect for the decisions made by Colosio. I always look for Zedillo, he was his boss, that’s how he treated him. He informed him about what he planned to do, they talked, discussed and reached agreements. He carried out campaign tasks with the same intensity as always and with the good results to which we were accustomed.
A situation that links both characters, Colosio and Zedillo, occurred with the Zapatista uprising on January 1, 1994. During our stay at INSOL, Marco asked me to follow up on what was happening in Chiapas; the instruction was given in November 1992. The team followed up daily on what was published in The Day about Chiapas. When the Zapatista uprising took place, Bernal had all the information organized thematically and territorially of what had been published about that southern state.
His interview with the candidate, the vision and organized information that Marco presents him, makes him part of a special group of experts in Chiapas. A year and three months later he was appointed coordinator of the government delegation for the pacification of Chiapas and nine months after arduous negotiations, the signing of what were called The San Andrés Larráinzar Accords was achieved. Commitments that Zedillo did not fulfill, but that is another story. Marco Bernal achieved what his beloved teacher Manuel Camacho would have wanted to obtain. They have not given Marco due recognition for such a relevant achievement. He published the story of that negotiation in an out-of-print book: Chiapas: chronicle of a negotiation.
Marco was a born politician and decided to leave the government bureaucracy and start a parliamentary political career with the idea of becoming the governor of Tamaulipas. He presents his resignation as a collaborator to Zedillo and announces his intention to run as a senator for three years. He wins the senatorship and goes to fight for the governorship. That election is part of what will be a rehearsal for the designation of a candidate for the Presidency of the Republic in 2000. He competes against everything and everyone, losing with a slight disadvantage to Tomás Yarrington.
Return to the Senate. The PRI loses the elections in 2000 and begins a period of uncertainty for professional PRI politicians. It is at this stage that he begins his approach with Manlio Fabio Beltrones and quickly becomes an indispensable advisor. He was part of the Sonoran’s team at the CNOP and upon leaving, in 2006, he was appointed federal deputy and shortly afterwards secretary of the aforementioned organization.
But Marco was not just a politician, he was a generous, friendly man who liked to put on a bad and arrogant mask. He never said it, but it was surely a game that, as a professional psychologist, he liked to play. He was born and raised in Matamoros where he has his closest, most loyal friends, who accompanied him day by day from the moment he decided to no longer fight for anything and no one: Beto and Rafa.
He lived with a profound intensity, he had a privileged memory. He was a great domino player, ruthless with his partner who did not forgive him for not choking the opponent’s mule or making a stupid closing and not to mention if he failed and did not give him the piece with which he left.
To me he was the kindest character I have ever met. And it made me think about problems of national importance and great public utility. I live eternally grateful to Marco Bernal.
* Political analyst
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