Yearly Archives: 2024
Priorities
Luis Rubio It is not difficult to elucidate the problems confronting Mexico; the hard part is to identify suitable solutions and to create consensus for their implementation. The problems are in good measure ageless and known to all, but their causes, consequences and potential solutions are always controversial. That’s why the old notion that the […]
Counterpoint
Counterpoint Luis Rubio The great magic of the old political system lay in the expectation that there would always be a new opportunity to reinvent the country with the change of governments. When a government was bad, the saying went that “there is no evil that lasts six years nor a people that can endure […]
Is Mexico’s government governing?
Luis Rubio February 13, 2024 Problems pile up when the capacity to respond diminishes. Even more so when those responsible appear utterly unwilling to respond. It comes as no surprise to anyone these days that problems such as insecurity, criminality, corruption, racketeering and electoral conflicts continue to mushroom while candidates for office are assassinated, […]
What’s Missing
Luis Rubio Paraphrasing Albert Camus in his speech on receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature, “all governments doubtless feel called upon to reform the world.” Few achieve it. As soon as their mandate ends, the reverberations begin: what remained inconclusive, what was not done, what was done wrong. Or worse. In the Mexican post-Revolutionary era, […]
Governance
Luis Rubio The problems pile up while the capacity to respond diminishes. If to this one were to add the utter unwillingness of the government to find solutions to the problems that appear (and to those that it unnecessarily generates), the explosive potential, above all in an electoral year, intensifies without limit. It comes as […]
Order and Disorder
Luis Rubio A “trilemma” occurs when there are three critical objectives but only two are attainable at the same time. From the time that I became acquainted with this formulation it seemed to me that it described well the contradictions that characterize Mexico: the search for political and economic stability above the disorder, the violence […]
The legacy of the North American Free Trade Agreement
Luis Rubio January 26, 2024 At its 30th anniversary, the North American Free Trade Agreement (and its second iteration in the form of the USMCA) has been the most successful instrument of economic transformation that Mexico has ever had in its life as an independent nation. It sounds easy, but in recent decades it has […]
Bidenomics
Luis Rubio Biden is a rare specimen in the world of politics. Despite his chronological years and his (historical) discursive dyslexia, he has proven to be masterful in legislative matters and, although not recognized for it, he has advanced an agenda in a much more successful manner than would have seemed possible within a context […]
NAFTA
Luis Rubio At its thirtieth anniversary, the North American Free Trade Agreement (and its second iteration in the form of the USMCA) has been the most successful instrument of economic transformation that Mexico has ever had in its life as an independent nation. It sounds easy, but in recent decades it has been possible to […]
Mexico’s 2024 Elections: Time To Boost Democracy Or Cement Authoritarianism
• WORLDCRUNCH – ENGLISH EDITION LOPEZ-OBRADOR As Mexico´s president seeks to consolidate his power ahead of the 2024 general elections in the fall, will voters and institutions react to safeguard the country´s democracy or fall deeper into outgoing President López Obrador´s authoritarian impulses? MEXICO CITY — Two philosophies divide the realm of power. One seeks to ensure the state […]