The old ways still worked in 1994: after his first choice, Luis Donaldo Colosio, was assassinated, Mr Salinas picked Ernesto Zedillo as his successor.

ECONOMIST: Mexican politics

PRI, Luis Donaldo Colosio, anointed as its presidential candidate.

ECONOMIST: Mexico

Unlike his predecessors, who manoeuvred their way into the top job, he fell into it when Mr Salinas's hand-picked successor, Luis Donaldo Colosio, was assassinated a few months before the 1994 election.

ECONOMIST: The beginning of the end of the longest-ruling party | The