WASHINGTON — It was supposed to be a celebration of Mexico's beginnings. But the expatriates who gathered on their country's Independence Day could not stop thinking about the end.
The end of what, they could not--or weren't quite ready to--say. But the irony was not lost on the diplomats sipping tequila under the glittering chandeliers at the Washington headquarters of the Organization of American States.
Here they were, joining together for their annual toast to the glories of their country--and the dazzling power of the political party that has ruled it for 71 years. But suddenly the ruling party had lost the presidency, and its power looked as insubstantial as the red and green crepe bunting bedecking the hall.
For Mexican diplomats in Washington, for whom the dominance of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, back home has been a given, it was like no Independence Day in their lifetimes.
"Everyone at the embassy is suddenly calling themselves a PANista now," confided one diplomat, referring to the National Action Party, or PAN, that dethroned the PRI in July's historic presidential election. "No one knows what this is all going to mean for our future. How could we? It's never happened before."
With Mexico preparing to inaugurate Vicente Fox on Dec. 1 as its first opposition party president, life for Mexicans posted to coveted jobs in Washington has turned upside down. Gone by Nov. 30 will be the ambassador, his top aides and the Mexican attorney general's envoy to Washington. Also gone will be the political appointees immediately beneath them.
Left to wonder about their future will be the bulk of the 200 or so people who staff the Mexican Embassy and Consulate, the Mexican Cultural Institute and the Mexico section of the Organization of American States. Not all are members of the PRI. But those who are say they are keeping quiet about their politics.
"This is a very unique moment," said Ambassador Jesus Reyes Heroles, heir to one of the PRI's most prominent families. ". . . You have to change your way of thinking. We are in the opposition now. It's a new world."
Throughout the government bureaucracy, stocked for generations with the beneficiaries of PRI patronage, officials high and low are wondering and worrying about their future. Fox has promised not to engage in wholesale dismissals. His transition team has been quick to suggest that it wants many of the best and brightest of the current administration to join the new one.
