Yearly Archives: 2020

Luis Rubio  It is difficult to imagine a more striking contrast in government response to the coronavirus than that evidenced by the Mexican government vis-à-vis the United States and, in general, the majority of the developed world. The president has refused to contemplate anything that is alien to the strategy that he has been promoting […]

Luis Rubio   Before, in the good times, Easter was a time to keep. Now that keeping has become a semi-permanent state, I set about gathering some ideas, explanations and comments on the current moment, aiming to better understand the situation or, at least, to laugh (or cry) at it. “I have no idea what’s […]

Luis Rubio The government and its coterie state that through their election in 2018 they achieved a regime change in Mexico, which explains (and justifies) all the outrages, excesses and problems that characterize the Mexican economy and society today. According to this thesis, the actions taken by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s administration stem from a […]

Luis Rubio Three expressions sum up the disagreement characterizing the country’s economy at present and that explain the paralysis (stagnation with a strong propensity toward recession), lack of progress and bad prospects. Presidential rhetoric will camouflage the problematic with grandiose phrases such as “this is not a change of government, this is a change of […]

Luis Rubio Professor Huntington* caused a scandal when, in the middle of the Cold War, he wrote that what is important in a government does not lie in its ideological characteristics, but in its effectiveness. What gave rise to the uproar was his affirmation that the U.S., the U.K. and the Soviet Union had systems […]

Luis Rubio  “The history of Mexico, says a well-known analyst, is first and foremost the history of personalized power -of the concentration of all the levers of power and resources- in the hands of a leader standing above society, of a succession of leaders and their regimes. Breaking away from the post-PRI era required a […]

Luis Rubio The big question is how Mexicans are going to get out of this one. Aside from the President’s popularity, all indicators are pointing the wrong way: the economy stagnates, employment does not grow, the government continues to amass legal and fiscal instruments to persecute the citizenry and there is not a single topic […]

Luis Rubio The master of the house unequivocally, maybe unbearably, threatened his wife: bring me a little girl as a “gift” or I will rape our daughters. The woman responded by bringing him a little girl.  Perhaps the dilemma was existential, but the woman complied, condemning as she did an innocent child. We all know […]

Luis Rubio The book of anecdotes relates that Mexican President Adolfo Ruiz Cortines (1952-1958) kept a completely tidy desk, with the exception of two bins: the first said “Problems that resolve themselves” and the second, “Problems that time takes care of”. That political philosophy, carried over time, allowed successive administrations back in the middle of […]

Luis Rubio The future is built, whether consciously or unconsciously. The president, through his actions, decisions and rhetoric, shapes it, like it or not. Nearly a year and a half after the initiation of President López Obrador’s administration, there are two things that are very clear: first, his objective is to change the future that […]