Carlos Salinas: The Man Behind the Mask

The burden of power has added weight to his taut cheeks, sketched lines under his eyes and erased the spontaneity from his grin. The face of Carlos Salinas de Gortari recalls Mexico’s ubiquitous clay masks: one side smiles, free of trenchant thought; the other is a frieze of pained contemplation. That, Nobel laureate Octavio Paz wrote in The Labyrinth of Solitude 40 years ago, is typical of his countrymen: “His face is a mask, and so is his smile.”

Salinas seems to be tugging his country out of a feudal past, yet he is also pulling Mexico back to an era of paternalistic rule by an all-powerful caudillo. Behind the engaging grin, twinkling eyes and computer-like mind is a man obsessed with his public image. “He is fascinated with power and control,” says a longtime acquaintance. “Whether it’s politics or football, he wants to win every time. And if he doesn’t, he can be very nasty.”

You want to like him. There is something modern and hopeful about Salinas that separates him from traditional Mexican politicians. His office gives a carefully cultivated impression of efficiency. He expects — and gets — results. Decisions come from the top with the expectation that they will be implemented, not debated.

Salinas was to the presidential manner born. His father Raul was Minister of Commerce and Industry in the 1950s and a man who schooled his son early in the uses of power. Carlos’ family connections and the Ph.D. he earned at Harvard in political economy and government assured him success. But in Mexico the path to power is politics, and politics means the Institutional Revolutionary Party (P.R.I.). By the mid-1970s Salinas was hustling up the ladder.

After his appointment as Secretary of Planning and Budget in 1982, he oversaw unpopular cuts in spending and real-wage reductions that could have dimmed his presidential aspirations. But only one vote is needed to become chief executive of Mexico — that of the sitting President.

In October 1987 President Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado unveiled Salinas as the P.R.I.’s presidential candidate for 1988, anointing him as crown prince. But his struggle was not over. Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, the son of a venerated former President, broke with the P.R.I. and ran a populist campaign that drew unexpectedly strong support. Partisans insisted that Cardenas won and that the 50.3% of the vote credited to Salinas was the result of massive fraud. Though election chicanery is commonplace in Mexico, Salinas is the first President to have the legitimacy of his mandate widely questioned.

Since taking office, Salinas has worked hard to cement his personal popularity. He makes frequent helicopter trips, known as giras, outside Mexico City, to take the national pulse. Wherever he goes, he renders instant verdicts on pleas for sewers, electricity, roads, hospitals, and is known to follow through on his promises.

Although he is only one-third through his six-year term, the question of Salinas’ successor already pervades Mexican political life. Because the President is barred from re-election himself, his ability to impose his choice on the country is the foundation of the P.R.I.’s lock on power. But the very reforms he has set in motion may prevent Salinas from extending the 60-year- old political monopoly that put him in office.