His detractors on the other hand claim that his party strayed away from its original doctrine and was now run by the “neo-panistas” (e.g. Manuel Clouthier, Vicente Fox, Francisco Barrio Terrazas and Ernesto Ruffo Appel).

Prominent party members, including Pablo Emilio Madero, Jesus González Schmal, Jose González Torres and Bernardo Bátiz, left the PAN in protest arguing that Álvarez's policy of dialogue with Carlos Salinas de Gortari legitimized his government which was under intense national criticism of perpetrating an electoral fraud.

He was elected to the Senate for Chihuahua from 1994 to 2000, during which period he served as a member of the Commission of Concord and Pacification in Chiapas that was in charge of the peace negotiation between the Federal Government and the Zapatista Army of National Liberation.

On December 15, 2006, President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa designated him head of the Commission for the Development of the Indigenous People.

[2] Álvarez's wife, Blanca Magrassi Scagno, an activist and important figure within the PAN, died on October 9, 2015, at the age of 92.