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PRI

(AP/Wide World Photos)

The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), founded in 1929 after the Mexican Revolution, controlled political power in Mexico for 71 years. Once called "the world's most entrenched political machine," the PRI still plays an important role in federal and local politics and still holds the largest number of seats in the Mexican Congress. Voters ousted the PRI in 2000, in what was widely reported as a vote against the corruption-plagued party that had always controlled the presidency. But the PRI is likely to run a competitive campaign in the presidential election of 2006.