Tried & True

By his first official act--choosing his Cabinet--Mexico's new President Adolfo Lopez Mateos (TIME, Dec. 8) set a course for his administration. He put the accent on technical brilliance, shunned Yanqui-haters, seemed determined to stay on the middle road to booming development followed by his predecessor, Adolfo Ruiz Cortines.

Top names of the new Cabinet:

P:Gustavo Diaz Ordaz, 46, Secretary of Government (Interior) and Chief of Cabinet. The shrewdly capable No. 3 man at Government under Ruiz Cortines, he was hoisted to the top by Lopez Mateos.

P:Manuel Tello, 59, Secretary of Foreign Affairs. Ruiz Cortines' able Ambassador to the U.S. for the past six years, he will probably be replaced in Washington by Antonio Carrillo Flores, 49, Finance Secretary under Ruiz Cortines and one of the best friends the U.S. has in Mexico.

P:Raul Salinas Lozano, 41, Secretary of Economy. A top economist and Ruiz Cortines' president of the National Commission on Investments, he has written a definitive study entitled Possibilities of Foreign Capital Investments in Mexico.

For one important post, Lopez Mateos reached outside the Ruiz Cortines ranks; Pascual Gutierrez Roldan, 55, replaced Antonio J. Bermudez as director of the government oil company (Pemex). A conservative businessman who ran up handsome profits as director general of the country's largest steel producer, Altos Hornos, he will no doubt try to cut down waste and featherbedding at Pemex.

The new President handled his first problem--a strike-producing dispute between the government party's incumbent mayor and his never-say-die opponent in San Luis Potosi's mayoral election campaign--with forceful directness. He mobilized 3,000 troops, broke up demonstrations, restored order. This week the voters went to the polls through well-guarded streets right on schedule.

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