The Party of the Democratic Revolution (Spanish: Partido de la Revolución Democrática, pronounced [paɾˈtiðo ðe la reβoluˈsjon demoˈkɾatika], PRD) is a state-level[15] social democratic[16][17] political party in Mexico (previously national, until 2024).

[18] The PRD originated from the Democratic Current, a political faction formed in 1986 from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

[19] The Democratic Current was also against technocratization, in which the people in power had not held public office and were scholars who were often educated abroad.

[19] This political marginalization led the Democratic Current members to be more vocal about their concerns because they did not have a position of power to protect within the PRI.

[19] The forming of a group that was not united because of work but because of difference in ideology within the PRI caused fear of division within the party.

[13][19] Some Democratic Current members went on to support Cárdenas in his 1988 quest for presidency and help in the founding of the PRD.

[20] The victory of the PRI's candidate, Carlos Salinas de Gortari, was largely considered guilty of electoral fraud in 1988; this was after the computers tabulating votes had reportedly crashed.

The National Democratic Front continued to support Cárdenas by signing a Declaration for the Defense of Popular Sovereignty.

[20] Former PRI members who also helped found the PRD include: Cárdenas, Porfirio Muñoz Ledo, Ifigenia Martínez y Hernández and Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

Some members of the party wanted to strongly and publicly denounce the armed struggle, whereas others decided to emphatically approve the movement and its goals therefore, it was difficult to form a united front.

[24] Additionally, the PRD had a difficult time transitioning from a movement with a non-negotiable goal to a party that pushed gradual reforms.

[19] Cárdenas ran against Diego Fernández, PAN candidate, and PRI party winner of the election, Ernesto Zedillo Ponce.

[20] The PRI used its media influence to promote the idea that changing the governing party would disrupt the nation[13] as well as to portray Cárdenas and the PRD as confrontational and violent.

[13] These changes included the creation of the new Federal Elections Institute in 1990 which established six independent councilors who required legislative approval.

[13] By the end of 1999, 650 members of the PRD had been assassinated, mostly by the PRI, as a way to intimidate those working towards democracy, civic engagement, and social movements.

[20] The claims of election fraud have been rejected by the Federal Electoral Tribunal (TEPJF), which considered these "notoriously out of order" ("notoriamente improcedente") and certified PAN's candidate Felipe Calderón as the winner.

[25] This caused López Obrador to maintain his campaign of civil disobedience and declared himself as "Legitimate President"[25] in a "public open vote" (people in the main square raising their hands).

[20] This split later trickled on to other things such as electoral and petroleum reforms where one part of the party wanted to cooperate while the other refused to out of allegiance to López Obrador.

Later, another video was recorded by Cuba's government where Carlos Ahumada, the man providing the money, states that members of the PRI and PAN, PRD's rivals, were planning the situation presented in the first video as part of a plot against Andrés Manuel López Obrador to discredit him as a possible presidential candidate[citation needed].

[30][31] In 2017, Ricardo Anaya, then President of PAN, announced his party's proposal to create an alliance of politicians called "Opposition Wide Front" to "form a coalition government that will result in a stable majority that can govern the country and make the change of regime a reality.

[37] It will remain registered as a state-level party and it can participate in the local elections of Aguascalientes, Baja California Sur, Guerrero, Mexico City, Michoacán, Morelos, Oaxaca, San Luis Potosí, Sonora, the State of Mexico, Tabasco, Tlaxcala and Zacatecas.

[38] On August 28, 2024, two remaining PRD senators-elect, Araceli Saucedo Reyes of Michoacán and José Sabino Herrera of Tabasco, switched their party affiliations to the Morena caucus ahead of the LXVI Legislature of the Mexican Congress.

[18] The PRD, since its founding, believes that the state should have jurisdiction and should intervene in the fundamental and prioritized areas of the productive sector, such as nutrition, production of clean energy, telecommunications, the process of technology, infrastructure, communication mediums, financial systems, and technology trade for the national and regional development, restraining ownership and dominion of hydrocarbons and radio-electric spectrum for the nation and the recovery of basic goods that guarantee sovereignty.

[18] The PRD defends the rights of every Mexican worker, the preservation and expansion of social security, and the permanent improvements of contractual conditions.

The PRD does this to satisfy the necessities of current and future generations, based on the responsible use of natural resources, including new tools for development, that would allow for the protection and recovery of the environment with comprehensive public policy.

[18] The PRD supports the self-determination of communities, non-intervention, legal equality of states, the cooperation for national development and sovereignty, and the respect and incorporation of international treaties into legislation.

[44] The National Congress approves the statue, the declaration of principles, the program, and the political organization of the party.