Later, PRI members back down on the reforms. Zapatista rebels walk out of peace talks with the government in September. 1997 Amado Carrillo Fuentes , one of the world's most powerful drug traffickers, dies in July after radical liposuction and plastic surgery. For the first time in 68 years, the PRI loses control of the lower house of Congress in July elections. In December, a paramilitary group massacres 45 people, mostly women and children, in a small politically divided village in Chiapas.
Wildfires burn uncontrollably across Mexico, destroying rare plants and animals.
Southern states are the hardest hit. During the governors' elections in July, the PRI loses some key seats but wins one in the northern state of Chihuahua. Bitter sparring marks talks between Zapatista rebels and negotiators from the Mexican government. The November talks was the first meeting since the two sides severed all relations in September 1996. Citibank , the United State's second-largest bank, transfered millions in drug money for Raul Salinas, according to a report released in December by the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of the United States Congress.