House of the falling sun: scandals rock PRD and the capital's party of power will never be the same.

The sun shining on the Party of the Democratic Revolution has been eclipsed thanks to a recent pair of devastating corruption scandals. March 1 and 3 will be unforgettable for the PRD and Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in particular. In only three days, Lopez Obrador, the most popular presidential aspirant, received well-aimed shots at two strategic positions at his inner circle of collaborators.

On March 1, Televisa played a video showing former Mexico City Finance Secretary Gustavo Ponce gambling at a high-stakes table in a posh Las Vegas casino. According to the report, Ponce travelled to Las Vegas 17 times between April 2002 and February 2004 and threw around tips in the thousands of dollars.

On March 3, Televisa again aired hidden-camera tapes, these showing now-former city assembly leader and ex-PRD member Rene Bejarano receiving cash from businessman Carlos Ahumada. However, it remains unclear whether the tape shows extortion, favor buying, a bill being paid or the financing of a political campaign.

The second video was the more damaging. Its release shook Lopez Obrador and all of the PRD, as Bejarano was the man closest to the mayor. He was his private secretary and later became his main political strategist and a key player in the PRD's sweep of the capital in the 2003 elections.

In the following days, more information surfaced about the relationship between Ahumada and certain PRD members whose campaigns he financed in return for public works projects. He enjoyed a close relationship with former Mexico City Mayor Rosario Robles, a former party president who resigned from the PRD under mounting pressure on March 10.

This information has put the PRD's whole structure in jeopardy, as the public and political leaders demand to know more about how resources are managed within the PRD and the governments it controls.

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This scandal has come in the midst of a struggle between different PRD factions, with an eye toward who will be the party's presidential candidate in 2006. There are accusations and mutual discrediting among those who support three-time presidential nominee Cuautemoc Cardenas and backers of Lopez Obrador.

RATS FROM SINKING SHIP 

It seems instead of instituting damage control, PRD members are trying to save themselves by sinking others, and ultimately the party. After release of the video in which Bejarano stuffed his briefcase and pockets with cash, the PRD will never be as it was before. Mexico's main leftist party has lost its clean and honest image, which it often promoted in electoral battles.

For the first time, the PRD is suffering the costs of being a party in government. These costs are especially painful given the party's institutional weakness, its youth (15 years) and internal divisions. Very few PRD leaders will escape the scandal unscathed. The most radical factions of the party will look to close ranks and will start internal clashes, as the only way to cleanse the party's tattered image.

However, more pragmatic PRD members will use the opportunity to make the party's internal workings more transparent and push for agreements and negotiations with other political forces.

A poll conducted by Reforma newspaper on March 4 showed Lopez Obrador's honest image drop 29 points nationally after the video's release (59% to 30%).

Will the PRD and Lopez Obrador's coat of honesty shine again? An eclipse is the temporary obscuring (partial to total) of a galactic body. The kind of eclipse that is affecting the PRD will depend on the ability of its own factions to reach agreements between themselves.

For now, President Fox and the National Action Party have the opportunity to reposition themselves and regain ground in the 14 local elections to take place this year and the presidential contest looming in 2006.

Joel Estudillo Rendon is a member of the board of the Mexican Institute for Political Studies.

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Commentary by Joel Estudillo Rendon