How did the PRI gain and lose control of the Mexican government

July 2, 2000. The PRI loses a presidential election for the first time, to Vicente Fox of the PAN. - 2005. A series of state election defeats leaves the PRI in control of only half of Mexico's 31 states.

The Institutional Revolutionary Party (Spanish: Partido Revolucionario Institucional, PRI) is a Mexican political party founded in 1929 that held power uninterrupted in the country for 71 years from 1929 to 2000, first as the National Revolutionary Party (Spanish: Partido Nacional Revolucionario, PNR), then as the Party of the Mexican Revolution (Spanish: Partido de la Revolución Mexicana, PRM), and finally renaming itself as the Institutional Revolutionary Party in 1946.