Yearly Archives: 2024
Fantasy World
Luis Rubio In The Name of The Rose, Umberto Eco employs an anecdote to evoke an obvious fact. He says: “In the Middle Ages, cathedrals and convents burned like tinder; imagining a medieval story without a fire is like imagining a Second World War movie in the Pacific without a fighter plane shot down in […]
A Coup-Like Mentality
Luis Rubio No one can doubt that justice in Mexico is practically nonexistent. The average Mexican lives in a sea of permanent abuse without having any recourse to protect their interests. Most of the issues -contracts, services, defective products- that involve the average citizen are local, unlike the federal jurisdiction, which is the one that […]
The Obverse
Luis Rubio Leaders inherit their circumstances, affirm Zelikow and Rice.* “Facing those circumstances between the years 1988 and 1992, some leaders chose, quite deliberately, to transform the basic operating principles of whole societies. They chose to abolish countries and create new ones. They chose to roll back and substantially disarm the larger and most dangerous […]
Paradigms
Luis Rubio During her campaign, today’s President-Elect repeatedly stated that two contrasting models of the country and the government were at stake in the election. In effect: democracy and tyranny are two models in counterpoint that entail fundamental consequences for the citizenry and for the country’s future. Whatever way each citizen voted in past election, […]
Foolhardy
Luis Rubio 1982. Mexico finds itself in a difficult situation. The public finances have deteriorated due to the gambles that the outgoing government has taken throughout its administration, betting that at the end everything would translate into economic growth. While that was happening, the presidential election continued along its course in normal fashion. The month […]
It Caught Up with Us
Luis Rubio The end of one more electoral cycle will not be like all others in the past. With this election the country is fast approaching a moment of unravelling not due to the result itself, but instead because the process, the antecedents and the imponderables evidenced along the way stripped the political system of […]
The New Truth
Luis Rubio Years ago, during my student days, I attended a performance of an experimental theatrical work that, I think, was called Chaos in the Scenario. It was a parody of an orchestra conductor who was unable to decide on which work to interpret. Each of the orchestra’s instruments attempted to convince him to select the score […]
Dilemma
Luis Rubio The Mexican electorate today faces a fundamental dilemma. Howsoever each citizen votes, it is impossible to minimize the transcendence of the casting of the citizen’s ballot. In the elections the future of the country is at stake and the central question is how to elevate the probability of the result’s being benign while […]
The alternative
Luis Rubio At the heart of the electoral dispute that is about to end dwells the central actor: the citizenry. Next Sunday is the day on which, with their vote, the citizens will express their view with regard to the government and their expectations with respect to the future. In contrast with other stellar moments of Mexican politics, this election day undoubtedly constitutes a watershed, the […]
Little Gift
Luis Rubio Whatever the outcome of Mexico’s upcoming June second elections, what is certain is that the winner will be fallen upon by the mighty tiger of insecurity and violence that afflict practically the entire country. Although the President has minimized and spurned the extent of the impact -and the damage- that the extortion and […]