LOPEZ PORTILLO (Y PACHECO), JOSE

born June 16, 1920, Mexico City lawyer, economist, and writer who was president of Mexico from 1976 to 1982. Lpez Portillo attended the National Autonomous University of Mexico and the University of Chile. He then practiced law and later was professor of law, political science, and public administration at the National University of Mexico before beginning his political career. He held various administrative positions under Presidents Gustavo Daz Ordaz and Luis Echeverra before becoming minister of finance in 1971. In this position he modernized tax-collection procedures, pursued tax evaders, and reduced public spending. As president of Mexico Lpez Portillo followed a more conservative approach than that of his predecessor, deemphasizing land redistribution and favouring the creation of nonagricultural jobs, exploitation of oil and natural gas, tax concessions to stimulate industrial development, and attraction of foreign investment. He continued Echeverra's population-control program, which achieved a modest reduction in the country's high birth rate. Lpez Portillo's most significant political reform was to increase the size of the Chamber of Deputies to 400 members, with a minimum of 100 seats reserved for opposition parties. This measure was designed to permit more minority participation in Mexican politics, which had been dominated by the Institutional Revolutionary Party since 1929. Lpez Portillo mounted an ambitious program for the exploitation of huge, newly discovered petroleum reserves in Veracruz and Tabasco states by Petrleos Mexicanos (PEMEX), the state-owned Mexican oil agency. The program resulted in the rapid expansion of Mexico's oil exports, but much of the resulting wealth was squandered on inefficient state-run enterprises or was pocketed by government and labour-union officials. By the end of Lpez Portillo's term in 1982, rampant government corruption and unrestrained government borrowing had resulted in a huge foreign debt and the discrediting of his administration. On the international front, Lpez Portillo adopted a somewhat conciliatory approach toward supplying the United States with oil and gas while exerting pressure for the easing of U.S. trade and immigration restrictions. In 1978 Mexico reopened diplomatic relations with Spain after a 38-year hiatus. In 1983 President Miguel de la Madrid dissociated himself from Lpez Portillo's administration, accusing it of aggravating the grotesque maldistribution of wealth and defrauding PEMEX.