BY KEVIN G. HALL
                      Herald World Staff

                      MEXICO CITY - Mexico's Institutional Revolutionary Party, which ran the country for most of the 20th
                      century, installed as its leader Monday a critic of closer ties to the United States.

                      Roberto Madrazo, 49, a self-proclaimed nationalist wary of increasing U.S. investment in Mexico,
                      becomes the key opposition leader to President Vicente Fox, whose election in 2000 ended more than
                      70 years of rule by the PRI, as the party is known in its Spanish initials.

                      Madrazo, the former governor of the Mexican state of Tabasco, is a critic of the North American Free
                      Trade Agreement with Canada and the United States, which Fox strongly supports.

                      He is the first leader of PRI chosen in an open election. For generations, the PRI controlled Mexico
                      through patronage, corruption and backroom deals.

                      Although Madrazo hopes to change the party's image, his own selection as leader was marred by
                      accusations of fraud. It took a week to confirm his win by a margin of fewer than 50,000 votes out of
                      nearly three million cast, despite a nearly two-year campaign for the post.

                      Even though it lost the presidency to Fox, the PRI continues to dominate politics in Mexico, where it
                      holds slight majorities in both chambers of Congress and 17 of 31 governorships.

                      Because of his outspoken opposition to Fox, Madrazo's efforts are likely to bear on Mexico's relations
                      with the United States. Fox, a former Coca-Cola executive and an advocate of closer ties to
                      Washington, has been hamstrung by an unruly Congress since taking office 15 months ago. A divided
                      PRI left Fox with no strong opposition leader with whom to negotiate sweeping economic and social
                      reforms.