The LI Legislature of the Congress of the Union (LI Legislatura del Congreso de la Unión) was the 51st session of the Congress of Mexico. It sat from 1 September 1979 to 31 August 1982.
The session's senators had been elected in the 1976 general election while the deputies were elected in the 1979 mid-term election.
It marked a watershed in that it was the first congress elected after the 1977 political reforms, under which several parties on the left and the right obtained official registration and access to Congress by opposition parties (i.e. those other than the hegemonic Institutional Revolutionary Party) was made much more viable. The session's members included the first deputies from the Mexican Communist Party (PCM), the Workers' Socialist Party (PST) and the Mexican Democratic Party (PDM). The reforms also increased the number of deputies: 300 from single-member constituencies and 100 from regional lists.
Senate
The 1976 general election had elected two senators for each state and the Federal District – a total of 64 – to serve six-year terms. They were in office for the 50th and 51st sessions of Congress (1976–1982).
Party strengths Party Senators Institutional Revolutionary Party 63 Popular Socialist Party 1
Senators State Senator Party State Senator Party Aguascalientes Roberto Díaz RodríguezSubstitute for Rodolfo Landeros Gallegos Nayarit Leobardo Ramos Martínez Aguascalientes Héctor Hugo Olivares Ventura Nayarit Daniel Espinoza Galindo Baja California Rafael García VázquezSubstitute for Roberto de la Madrid Romandía Nuevo León Napoleón Gómez Sada Baja California Óscar Baylón ChacónSubstitute for Celestino Salcedo Monteón Nuevo León Adrián Yáñez Martínez Baja California Sur Substitute for Alberto Alvarado Arámburo Oaxaca Rodolfo Alaves FloresSubstitute for Eliseo Jiménez Ruiz Baja California Sur Víctor Manuel Liceaga RuibalSubstitute for Marcelo Rubio Ruiz Oaxaca Jorge Cruickshank García Campeche Rosa María Martínez DenegriSubstitute for Carlos Sansores Pérez Puebla Horacio Labastida Muñoz Campeche Joaquín Repetto OcampoSubstitute for Fernando Rafful Miguel Puebla Blas Chumacero Sánchez Chiapas Salomón González Blanco Querétaro César Rubén Hernández EnríquezSubstitute for Rafael Camacho Guzmán Chiapas Horacio Castellanos Coutiño Querétaro Telésforo Trejo UribeSubstitute for Manuel González Cosío y Rivera Chihuahua Santiago Nieto SandovalSubstitute for Óscar Ornelas Küchle Quintana Roo Vicente Coral Martínez Chihuahua Mario Carballo Pazos Quintana Roo Hernán Pastrana PastranaSubstitute for José Blanco Peyrefitte Coahuila Eliseo Mendoza Berrueto San Luis Potosí Rafael Tristán López Coahuila Gustavo Guerra Castaños San Luis Potosí Fausto Zapata Loredo Colima Aquileo Díaz VirgenSubstitute for Griselda Álvarez Ponce de León Sinaloa Hilda Anderson Nevárez Colima Antonio Salazar y Salazar Sinaloa Gilberto Ruiz Almada Durango Ignacio Castillo Mena Sonora Juan José Gastelum García Durango Tomás Rangel Perales Sonora Adolfo de la Huerta Oriol Guanajuato Euquerio Guerrero López Tabasco Antonio Ocampo RamírezSubstitute for David Gustavo Gutiérrez Ruiz Guanajuato Jesús Cabrera Muñoz Ledo Tabasco Nicolás Reynés BerazaluceSubstitute for Carlos Pellicer Cámara Guerrero Luis León Aponte Substitute for Jorge Soberón Acevedo Tamaulipas Morelos Jaime Canseco González Guerrero Rubén Uriza Castro Substitute for Alejandro Cervantes Delgado Tamaulipas Martha Chávez Padrón Hidalgo Humberto Lugo Gil Tlaxcala Jesús Hernández Rojas Hidalgo Vacant Tlaxcala Rafael Minor Franco Jalisco José María Martínez Rodríguez Veracruz Silverio Ricardo Alvarado Jalisco Arnulfo Villaseñor Saavedra Veracruz Sergio Martínez Mendoza State of Mexico Leonardo Rodríguez Alcaine Yucatán Víctor Cervera Pacheco State of Mexico Roberto Serrano Herrera Yucatán Martín García LizamaSubstitute for Graciliano Alpuche Pinzón Michoacán José Luis Escobar HerreraSubstitute for Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Solórzano Zacatecas Jorge Gabriel García Rojas Michoacán Guillermo Morfín García Zacatecas Pedro de LeónSubstitute for José Guadalupe Cervantes Corona Morelos Ángel Ventura Valle Federal District Luis del Toro CaleroSubstitute for Hugo Cervantes del Río Morelos Javier Rondero Zubieta Federal District Joaquín Gamboa Pascoe
President of the Senate 1976–1982: Joaquín Gamboa Pascoe
Chamber of Deputies
The 51st Congress was elected in the July 1979 mid-term election following the 1977 political reforms: the number of single-member constituencies was increased to 300 (from 196 in the 50th Congress), the proportional representation system was expanded to 100 seats (compared to 41 in the 50th Congress), and three parties obtained their first deputies: the Mexican Communist Party (PCM), the Workers' Socialist Party (PST) and the Mexican Democratic Party (PDM).
Deputies by party Party Single-memberdistricts Proportionalrepresentation Total Institutional Revolutionary Party 296 0 296 National Action Party 4 39 43 Mexican Communist Party 0 18 18 Authentic Party of the Mexican Revolution 0 12 12 Popular Socialist Party 0 11 11 Mexican Democratic Party 0 10 10 Workers' Socialist Party 0 10 10 Total 300 100 400
Deputies elected in single-member constituencies