MEXICO CITY -- A socialist opposition candidate, claiming a 'historical milestone,' offered Friday to drop out of the presidential race and form a coalition with another socialistic faction.
Mexican Socialist Party candidate Heberto Castillo said he would give up his bid for the top office to forge a coalition with opposition candidate Cuauhtemoc Cardenas and his party, the Democratic Alliance.
Castillo said his decision 'will be a historical milestone and the first major blow to the system in a long time. I have no doubt that Cardenas will say yes,' to the proposal.
In the state of Zacatecas Thursday, Castillo said 'the unity of democratic forces in Mexico' would be strengthened with the electoral success of the leftist opposition.
Raul Jardon, a spokesman for the Mexican Socialist Party or PMS, said Cardenas, who was in Veracruz for a meeting, said he saw no reason not to accept the offer except for possible problems regarding the formation of the government. A formal answer was expected Saturday.
The July 6 elections will determine the president for the 1988-94 term and national representatives and senators. The ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, known by the Spanish acronym PRI, has not lost a single presidential, gubernatorial or senate election since 1929.
A coalition between the PMS and the Democratic Alliance, known as CD, has been suggested since March.
In a nine-page document, Castillo stipulated conditions for the coalition.
If Cardenas wins the presidential election July 6, Castillo would get a Cabinet position under the proposed agreement. If he loses, no member of the CD or PMS would accept a governmental post, the document said.
It also outlines ideology, including the prohibition of arms transfers through the country; the end to corruption in public administration; and the suspension of the external debt of $103 billion.
The proposal marks the first time in 50 years leftist parties have considered forming a coalition. If the two parties unite, the PMS-CD would become the second most powerful party after the PRI, political analysts said.
The right-wing National Action Party, known as PAN, currently is the country's second most powerful party.
Castillo last year refused to align with Cardenas and criticized his politics, but Friday he said: 'I want an alliance. There were no pressures (for the alliance). I made this decision a while ago.
'With the alliance, we are going to have more votes than the PAN and the PRI.'
Political observers and the Mexican press have speculated from the beginning of the year that Castillo would be forced to align with the CD, given Cardenas's growing popularity and the deteriorating image of the left.
Cardenas left the Institutional Revolutionary Party in 1987 to form the CD, which has become the major party within a leftist coalition of three parties and other groups called the National Democratic Front.
Cardenas is the son of ex-president Lazaro Cardenas who governed from 1934 to 1940 and was one of the most popular presidents in Mexican history.
