For the life of me, I can’t remember this guy. From his Wiki page, sounds like he went through a presidency similar to Bush 43.
“During de la Madrid’s presidency, he introduced liberal economic reforms that encouraged foreign investment, and widespread privatisations of outdated state-run industries and reduction of tariffs, a process that continued under his successors, which immediately caught the attention of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other international observers. In 1986, Mexico entered the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) treaty, following its efforts of reforming and decentralising its economy. All told, the number of state-owned industries went down from approx. 1,155 in 1982 to 412 in 1988. This is enough to bring him some strong support, but his administration’s mishandling of the infamous 1985 earthquake in Mexico City damaged his popularity for initially refusing international aid, and it placed Mexico’s delicate path to economic recovery on an even more precarious situation, as the destruction also extended to other parts of the country.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miguel_de_la_Madrid
None of this would be in Wiki. I travelled a lot in Mexico back then, and lived there beginning with Salinas.
During the de la Madrid presidency, the Mexican drug industry consolidated into large gangs or cartels. Military roadblocks were common throughout the country, which was one of the ways the government got its hands on drug money. During his presidency, in parts of the country, when the army would search and find large marijuana crops, they would harvest them and turn them over to the dealer who paid the most for it.
The Mexican drug industry is much more above board than it is here in the US. Here, with the collusion of the MSM, drug killings are not reported as such, but are called “gang violence.” At base, gang violence is all drug turf wars. Even the notion of cartels is covered up here, where they are referred to as gangs.
Lopez Portillo, who preceded de la Madrid, was also permissive regarding drugs, but dealers were pretty much small time then. Salinas de Gortari, who followed de la Madrid, reformed the government still more, and institutionalized the cartel payoffs. The drug cartels were so strong under Salinas that they assassinated Donoldo Colosio, who was the heir apparent to Salinas.