Labor Coalition Backs 96-Year-Old Leader

Mexico’s largest labor coalition nominated its 96-year-old leader for another term. Fidel Velazquez, secretary general of the government-backed Mexican Worker’s Confederation, was nominated for a term that would keep him in power until 2004. Velazquez faced no opposition, and questions about his health were played down. “Don Fidel is still going strong,” said Leonardo Rodriguez Alcaine, head of the electricians union. Velazquez has often sided with the government in labor disputes. A pact signed by him and the head of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, calls for the union to develop “programs and campaigns to advance its affiliation with the PRI.”