‘Reorganization of the PRIAN’s Power Mafia’: Morena on Fox’s Alliance with ‘Alito’ and Jorge Romero

ByDarylh Rodríguez

This article by Darylh Rodríguez originally appeared in the September 8, 2026 edition of Contralínea, a Mexican investigative journalism magazine.

Following recent meetings of former president Vicente Fox with the national leaders of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), Alejandro Moreno Cárdenas, and the National Action Party (PAN), Jorge Romero Herrera, as well as with members of the new political group Somos, Morena stated that these overtures do not represent a new citizen alternative, but rather the “reorganization of the power mafia.”

The party with the largest membership in the Latin American region maintained that this series of meetings shows one more attempt to regroup the political forces that for decades disputed and shared power in Mexico, ahead of the 2027 elections. With this, it argued that behind the call to build a new opposition front lies the reorganization of “the power mafia” represented by the so-called PRIAN.

We are not facing a new opposition.

Morena

Through a communiqué, Morena questioned the supposed “renewed” citizen “alternative.” “The initials change, the names change, they invent new organizations, but beneath the wrapping the same people as always appear. They do not represent an alternative: it is the same old regime looking for a new disguise. It is the same story of agreements and simulations between those who pretend to be adversaries, but end up together when power and their privileges are at stake.”

The guinda party’s statements came after Fox and Moreno held a meeting this past September 4 at the PRI’s national headquarters. According to the tricolor party, the two discussed the country’s political situation, the defense of institutions and freedoms, as well as the “need” to strengthen checks and balances and citizen participation. For this reason, they made a call to join efforts among citizens, civil organizations, and political forces. In that context, Fox has also held meetings with different opposition figures such as Jorge Romero, the current PAN leader.

Faced with this situation, Morena noted that the former president first met with Jorge Romero, national leader of the PAN; then spoke with representatives of Somos; and finally went to the PRI headquarters to meet with Moreno. Therefore, it said, the sequence of meetings does not represent the emergence of a renewed opposition, but rather the recomposition of political forces that have already coincided at different moments in recent history.

Vicente Fox at the PRI national headquarters
Photo: Cuartoscuro

From Adversaries to Allies

The meeting between Vicente Fox and the PRI leadership carries particular symbolic weight. As will be recalled, in 2000, Fox Quesada reached the presidency as the PAN candidate with the promise to end “71 years of PRI governments.” Now, the former president went to the national headquarters of a party that at one point he pointed to as a political nemesis.

Indeed, after the meeting, the tricolor party itself presented the encounter in terms of dialogue and the construction of a broad opposition. Moreover, Alejandro ‘Alito’ Moreno recognized Fox’s political career and called for joining political forces.

For this reason, Morena’s leadership said this is the same story of “gatopardismo” — change so that everything stays the same — that Andrés Manuel López Obrador warned about at the time. “The façade changes so that everything stays the same. We are clear that there are two projects for the nation.”

Likewise, the guinda party recalled different episodes of Mexican politics. Among them, the PAN’s rapprochement with the government of Carlos Salinas de Gortari after the 1988 presidential election, in which fraud was recorded against Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas; the 2006 electoral confrontation between Felipe Calderón and Andrés Manuel López Obrador; and the 2012 Pact for Mexico, in which the PRI, PAN, and PRD took part in negotiating various reforms during Enrique Peña Nieto’s government to defend “a model made for a select few.”

“They want to return to the past of privileges. We in Morena continue building a future of well-being and justice for the people of Mexico,” the party charged.