They expose in a book “the most brilliant moments” of the six-year term of Echeverría

Andrea Becerril

Newspaper La Jornada
Sunday February 12, 2023, p. 5

The presentation of the book Echeverría seen through his time yesterday became a long posthumous tribute from close collaborators, friends and government officials led by the controversial former President of the Republic, more than 50 years ago.

The past eras of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) were present in this call, in which octogenarians and nonagenarians, such as Augusto Gómez Villanueva, Sergio García Ramírez, Alfredo Ríos Camarena, Julio Faesler, Mauro Jiménez Lazcano, and even centenarians such as Héctor Mayagoitia , expressed their loyalty and appreciation to Luis Echeverría Álvarez, and to what they considered the legacy of his six-year term in terms of national development and foreign policy.

The former PRI members Porfirio Muñoz Ledo and Ifigenia Martínez (senator from Morena) also participated, as well as members of other generations, who were formed in the Echeverrista government when they were very young, such as Pedro Joaquín Coldwell, Francisco Javier Alejo and Silvia Hernández.

The presentation of the book, in the San Jerónimo mansion that houses Itaca, Business School, was preceded by the intonation of the National Anthem, in charge of a military band, and in the presidium was General José Ángel García Elizalde, representative of the Secretary of National Defense, Luis Cresencio Sandoval.

This is how Colonel Jorge Nuño, who accompanied Echeverría from 1972 until his death, presented it, and emotionally sang the National Anthem yesterday. There was a moment of confusion, as the official presenter asked the attendees not only to stand, but to place his hand on their hearts. Some voices were heard saying: The gringos do that, we don’tbut no one paid attention to him and the ceremony continued with a minute of silence in memory of Echeverría, almost a year after his death, when he was already over 100 years old.

Then a video was broadcast with the stellar moments of the person who ruled Mexico between 1970 and 1976: campaign speeches, meetings with peasants, photographs with Fidel Castro and Salvador Allende, his speech at the UNAM, among others.

José Manuel Colmenares, editor of the book Echeverría seen through his timestressed that the work consists of the testimony of 35 people who worked very close to him and draw a society very different from the current one, a time that many do not remember and others did not even know.

Before a room full of politicians, as well as friends and relatives of the former president (among them his children María Esther and Pablo), Augusto Gómez Villanueva –secretary of Agrarian Reform during most of Echeverría’s six-year term and compiler of the book –, stressed that real facts are reported and ignored points of view.

The book, commented Pedro Joaquín Coldwell, reports The most brilliant moments of Echeverría’s six-year term and it will contribute, he said, so that present and future analysts and researchers issue a more informed opinion of that period.

Everardo Moreno Cruz, Celso Humberto Delgado, Senator Ifigenia Martínez, the economist Francisco Javier Alejo and the cetemista and former governor of Campeche, Abelardo Carrillo Zavala, also spoke, who agreed that Echeverría was an institution builder that still exist, like Infonavit.

PRI senator Beatriz Paredes noted that one of the former president’s contributions was to open the generational change and promote young people in political positions, in embassies, in student leadership. Some of those new talents are here, she noted.

The most controversial edge of the Echeverría government was barely touched. It was done first by Porfirio Muñoz Ledo, who served as Secretary of Labor in his six-year term, and stated that there are facts known as the Plaza of the Three Cultures and then the lawyer Juan Velázquez, who stressed that the Supreme Court exonerated him of the October 2 massacre.

The presentation of the book lasted almost four hours and many had already left and could not hear when Ríos Camarena, when highlighting Echeverría’s support for the family of Salvador Allende, said that His participation in Chile was historic, when President Pinochet (sic) was assassinated.