Yearly Archives: 2018

            Luis Rubio To my dear Gaby and Rafael in this terrible hour Every year the same thing happens: one year ends and another begins, like the normal cycle of life. On this occasion, Mexico is starting a new ear, under the promise of a radical change regarding what Mexicans have lived through in recent […]

                                                                                    Luis Rubio                       […]

Luis Rubio Let other boast about how many pages they have written; I’d rather boast about the ones I’ve read Jorge Luis Borges Jonathan Tepperman, the editor of Foreign Policy, argues in The Fix, that there are unconventional solutions to the problems that confront countries and that everything depends on the way the crises that […]

Luis Rubio Mexico needs a change of regime just as the citizenry demanded and President López Obrador offered. But not any change will do. For the second time in a few decades, Mexicans find themselves face to face with the opportunity to modify the regime and build one that responds to the needs of all […]

Luis Rubio The country lost its way when it began to privilege economic decisions over political criteria. Things went well when leaders emanated from the people made decisions that separated -and, in fact, subordinated- the economic power and the interests of the elites to the political power. Therefore, the solution to the problems of the […]

Luis Rubio Governmental changes are always paradoxical: one administration exits knowing that it did not achieve what it had proposed and another begins believing that the moon and the stars are within its reach. Whatsoever the nation or the moment in history, political transitions are always a study in contrasts between optimism and pessimism, derailed […]

Luis Rubio Nostalgia is strikingly afoot. The government of Enrique Peña Nieto is finally over, and another is about to begin, about which it will surely be more difficult to find reasons to laugh. In this regard there is a great parallel between Peña and Nixon. Nixon was a strange person, mistrustful, taciturn and Machiavellian. […]

 Luis Rubio The government that (finally…) is at the point of concluding lived besieged by what the president himself called the “bad social mood.” This is a vague concept that allows the transference of responsibility to others: It is not my fault but that of the population who does not understand. Using that measuring stick, […]

AMERICAS QUARTERLY Web Exclusive How AMLO’s Airport Decision Signals a Return to Mexico’s Past BY LUIS RUBIO | NOVEMBER 6, 2018 The end of Mexico City’s airport project reveals much about how AMLO will govern, writes the chairman of Mexico’s Council on Foreign Relations. Mexico’s President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador likes to frame his coming presidency as the […]

Luis Rubio All presidents feel themselves destined to change the world, but none has achieved this in the last half century. What difference will the next one make? Recent presidents tried everything: exacerbated public spending (Echeverría and López Portillo), pacts (Miguel de la Madrid and Peña Nieto), alliances (Salinas), agreements (Zedillo) and treaties (like NAFTA). […]