Yearly Archives: 2012

According to an old saying, one is what one reads. Reading is one of my passions and occupations: through books, articles, and assays I learn from others, I reflect on what’s happening in the world and I shape my ideas and judgments. Some readings offer a profound and broad view, others are characterized more by […]

The avatars of the bill on labor matters are suggestive of everything in which Mexico has advanced but also of the enormous distance it has yet to cover. The very idea of a preferential bill indicates that there is awareness of the need to adapt existing institutions, procedures and mechanics to times distant from those […]

What comes first, adequate laws for a society to function or a citizenry that complies with them? The question is not an idle one.Successful countries have one thing in common:  the fact that there are clear rules of the game -also known as laws and regulations- for all social, economic, and political actors. In some […]

The great absence in Mexican politics is an agreement on the how. Despite this, everyone is focused on the what.  After years of polarization, the Pact signed last week entertains enormous political symbolism and I do not wish to minimize its relevance. But the central disconnect of Mexican politics lies in the how because this […]

In Arthur Koestler’s novel Darkness at Noon, Ivanov, thefaithful and long-sufferingbureaucrat, interrogatesRubachov, anoldrevolutionary leader, arrested for doubting the course his country had taken after the end of the Revolution. Emboldened, Rubashovassails Ivanov with a categorical phrase: “we made history, you only play politics”. The revolutionaries had fought to change history and now, in thevoice of […]

In politics they say that “perception is reality”, which is not very distinct from the assertion of one of Mexico’s political sages, JesúsReyes-Heroles in the sense that in politics, “form is content”. Within this context, what happens when the reality changes but perceptions remain immobile? It is possible that we are in the midst an […]

At 102 years of the Mexican Revolution, the PRI is getting ready to return to the presidency. The circumstances of the country of today and its daily reality are nothing like the times at which Madero called for the uprising against PorfirioDíaz, but the moment is equally transcendental. Not only is a president coming from […]

According to a long-standing idea, the problem of Mexico resides in that the laws are not complied with and that if only compliance with them were exacted, everything would work well. Behind this perception lies the notion that we have good laws but a poor system of governing. Others think that the problem resides elsewhere: […]

A mature society, democratic and functional –the sine qua non for economic growth and peaceful coexistence- can only exist when effective checks and balances have been constructed. The problems that Mexico encounters these days, and that without doubt will confront the next government, derive from this fundamental void. The president elect offered in his campaign […]

The national “commentocracy” has a natural inclination toward Democratic candidates and more so on this occasion. President Obama irradiates enormous attractiveness, almost magnetism, and a personality that inspires as much due to his history as for being the first Black president of his country.Romney, on the other hand, has been presented in the media, there […]