Yearly Archives: 2019

Luis Rubio When Don Quixote discovers windmills, he says to his squire “Fortune is guiding our affairs better than we could have wished. Do you see over yonder, friend Sancho, thirty or forty hulking giants? I intend to do battle with them and slay them. With their spoils we will begin to be rich for […]

Luis Rubio “The solution to the problem, says Rachel Kleinfeld, lies in re-civilizing society and the political system.”  Violence has very clear and distinctive explanations in each specific situation that can be reverted if the problem is focused correctly. The author* affirms that it is possible to restore peace and order if a leadership is […]

 Americas Quarterly   LUIS RUBIO | APRIL 15, 2019   The not-yet-ratified USMCA has already impacted Mexican institutions, beyond the economy.   For Mexico, the North American Free Trade Agreement as originally designed was much more about politics than trade. The George Bush administration that negotiated the agreement understood that and, in fact, saw NAFTA in geopolitical, rather […]

Luis Rubio The handiest hypothesis on the causes of the electoral result of the past year refers to the population’s being fed up, the evident corruption of the government of the moment and, above all, the paltry outcomes of decades of reforms in terms of incomes, poverty and equity.  All of this is doubtlessly valid, […]

Luis Rubio At the beginning of this century, Russia found itself at a crossroads. The end of the Cold War had opened limitless opportunities, but its process of transition -from an economy that was controlled, centralized and one without private property to a market economy- had been disastrous. Instead of spreading the property among millions […]

Luis Rubio There is nothing like showing the true colors of a government and in Panavision. When one of the most emblematic members of President López Obrador’s coalition threatens the citizenry with sanctions, it is clear that the government is not there to govern or, in the old sense of the term, “serve” the population, […]

Luis Rubio The objective of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador with his referendum proposal is to eliminate the existing mechanisms of representation –the legislature- from the process of decision making.  In his vision, the “people” should ratify his decisions, which were previously taken, because in that way he would maintain, and elevate, his control […]

  Luis Rubio The 2008 crisis was a watershed for China. Up to then, the great Asian nation underwent an accelerated transition from the socialism of Mao Tse-tung toward the liberalization headed by    Deng Xiaoping, which yielded more than thirty years of annual growth rates of more than 10%. The expectation for the West was […]

Luis Rubio A few years ago, when Beijing was getting ready to receive the heads of government that make up APEC, the city government closed hundreds of factories and banned the circulation of millions of vehicles, all in the interest of reducing air pollution and trying to give it a less dirty facade to the […]

Wilson Center    Mexico Institute                                                                                   by Luis Rubio @lrubiof  One hundred days to consolidate a power […]