Imagine walking into a job where the building is literally on fire, the bank account is overdrawn by billions, and your predecessor just gave a speech crying on national television while blaming everyone but himself. That was the reality for Miguel de la Madrid on December 1, 1982.
He didn't get a honeymoon period. Honestly, he barely got a chance to breathe.
Mexico was a mess. The "Mexican Miracle" of the previous decades had vanished, replaced by a debt crisis so massive it threatened to take down the global banking system. We're talking about a country that had just defaulted on its debt months earlier. Inflation was screaming toward triple digits. The "technocrat" era had arrived, and Miguel de la Madrid was its first true face—Harvard-educated, stiff, and deeply unpopular.
The inheritance from hell
Most people think of presidents as having power. But De la Madrid mostly had a list of things he wasn't allowed to do. He inherited a financial catastrophe from José López Portillo. The previous guy had spent like there was no tomorrow because oil prices were high. When those prices cratered, the party ended.
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Basically, Mexico owed nearly $80 billion to foreign banks.
De la Madrid had to be the "bad cop." He introduced the Immediate Economic Reorganization Program (PIRE). It sounds fancy, but for the average Mexican, it meant one thing: austerity. He cut government spending to the bone. He raised taxes. He slashed subsidies on things people actually needed, like tortillas and gas.
Real wages didn't just dip; they plummeted. By the end of his term, the buying power of a Mexican salary was roughly half of what it had been in the late 70s. It was a "lost decade" in every sense of the word. People were hurting, and the man in the National Palace seemed more interested in balancing ledgers for the IMF than putting food on tables.
When the earth actually shook
If the economic collapse wasn't enough, nature decided to join in. September 19, 1985. 7:19 AM. A magnitude 8.1 earthquake ripped through Mexico City.
The government’s response was, to put it mildly, a disaster.
Miguel de la Madrid froze. For the first few hours, the government was essentially paralyzed. He even initially rejected international aid, famously claiming, "We are self-sufficient." It was a nationalist pride move that backfired spectacularly while people were still trapped under the rubble of the Juárez Hospital and the Tlatelolco housing complex.
You've probably heard the stories of the topos (moles)—ordinary citizens who crawled into collapsed buildings to save neighbors because the army and police were just standing around waiting for orders. This moment changed Mexico forever. It wasn't just buildings that crumbled; the absolute authority of the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) started to crack.
When the president finally showed up at the World Cup opening in 1986 at the Azteca Stadium, the booing was so loud it reportedly shook the broadcast. People weren't just mad about the economy anymore. They were mad that the state had abandoned them in their darkest hour.
The pivot to Neoliberalism
Despite the chaos, De la Madrid did something that changed Mexico’s DNA. He shifted the country away from a state-dominated economy.
When he took office, the government owned about 1,155 companies. Everything from steel mills to hotels. By the time he left in 1988, that number was down to around 412. He was the one who pushed Mexico into GATT (the precursor to the WTO) in 1986.
He sort of broke the old "Revolutionary" mold. He wasn't a charismatic general or a populist orator. He was a bureaucrat. A manager. Some historians, like Enrique Krauze, argue his biggest failure wasn't the economy—it was his refusal to let democracy happen.
The 1988 Election: The "System Crash"
The end of his term was a soap opera. Inside his own party, a group led by Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas (the son of a legendary former president) broke away. They were tired of the technocrats and the austerity.
Then came the election of 1988.
Carlos Salinas de Gortari was De la Madrid's hand-picked successor. On election night, as early results showed Cárdenas winning, the computer system suddenly "crashed." When it came back up, Salinas was the winner. This event, the "se cayó el sistema," is still one of the most controversial moments in Mexican political history.
Years later, in a 2009 interview, De la Madrid actually admitted he felt he had "made a mistake" picking Salinas, accusing him of corruption before later retracting the statement due to his failing health. It was a bizarre, honest moment from a man who had spent his life being "grey" and "professional."
Why it matters now
Miguel de la Madrid is often remembered as the man who managed a crisis but failed the people. He didn't fix the economy; he just stopped it from evaporating. He didn't start the democracy; he tried to hold the door shut until the hinges broke.
If you're looking to understand why Mexico's political landscape looks the way it does today, you have to look at the 80s. The distrust of the "technocrat" class started with him. The rise of civil society started with the 1985 earthquake.
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Actionable Insights for History Buffs and Policy Wonks:
- Study the 1982 Debt Crisis: It remains the blueprint for how the IMF handles emerging market collapses. Look at the PIRE (Immediate Economic Reorganization Program) specifically.
- The 1985 Earthquake Response: Research the "Victim Coordinating Council" (CUD). This was the birth of modern Mexican civil activism.
- Economic Transition: Compare the "Mexican Miracle" (1940-1970) with the neoliberal shift under De la Madrid to see how state-led growth died.
- Visit the Memorials: If you're in Mexico City, the Plaza de las Tres Culturas and the various earthquake memorials tell the story better than any textbook.
He died in 2012 at the age of 77. He wasn't the most loved president, but he was undoubtedly one of the most consequential. He steered the ship through a hurricane, even if he didn't care much for the passengers.