Articles

September 14, 2025

Prosperity?

Luis Rubio Mexico has never been an archetype of constitutional solidity. Our first constitution laid out an ideal to be achieved rather than a reflection of the sociopolitical realities that would later characterize the negotiations of the 1917 constituent assembly. Yet the realities of power determined that the constitution would be more of a point […]

September 10, 2025

Mexico’s electoral reform will close the door on pluralism

Mexico’s CongressMexico’s Democracy10 Sept by Luis Rubio, political analyst and Chair of México Evalúa. President Claudia Sheinbaum has announced an electoral reform. Its details have not yet been made public, but its spirit has been clear since the beginning of the year, laid out through a series of official statements. What motivates this initiative is […]

September 07, 2025

Deterioration

Luis Rubio In his novel A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter Miller presents a paradox that time itself naturally elevates: “Isn’t it funny that day by day nothing changes, but when you look back, everything is different?” The recent visit of the U.S. Secretary of State vividly illustrated just how much the priorities of both governments […]

August 31, 2025

Back to the Porcupine

Luis Rubio Two emblematic books capture the history of U.S.–Mexico relations over the past few decades. Alan Riding’s Distant Neighbors, published in 1985, portrayed two opposing nations that seemed incapable of communicating, much less understanding one another. In retrospect, Riding was writing just as the two countries were beginning to talk and to construct the […]

August 24, 2025

The Chinese Meander

Luis Rubio Over the last half century, Mexico has experienced versions of one-party hegemony, electoral competition, authoritarianism, “perfect” dictatorship, incipient democracy, and back again to a growing quasi-hegemonic thrust. In the meantime, there have been moments of obstinacy, openness, freedom, attempts at subjugation, dinosaur tail lashes, extortions, threats, much discretion and arbitrariness, and “other data”. […]

August 22, 2025

Mexico and TrumpMexico’s Foreign PolicyMexico’s Politics

by Luis Rubio 19 Aug by Luis Rubio, political analyst and chairman of México Evalúa. For months, talk has been circulating about a possible US military intervention in Mexico. The idea has gained traction here due to the presence of American intelligence ships in the Gulf of California and, more recently, the sighting of a drone […]

August 17, 2025

Hegemonies

Luis Rubio Is Morena the “new” PRI? The question is obvious and frequently asked. The way in which Morena has advanced its political project—now in its second administration—makes clear its aim to become a hegemonic party, as the PRI once was. However, context matters: the 21st century is very different from the last one, and […]

August 15, 2025

The Morena Pact

Mexico’s Democracy, Mexico’s Politics, Mexico’s Economy15/08/2025by Luis Rubio, political analyst and chairman of México Evalúa. In 1989, a series of protests and disturbances in China culminated in the massacre at Tiananmen Square, Beijing’s central plaza. The event shook not only China, but also the outside world, which had placed its hopes on reintegrating China into the community of […]

August 10, 2025

Self-Imposed Limits

Luis Rubio Macondo, the fictional town invented by Gabriel García Márquez in One Hundred Years of Solitude, represents a place where myth and reality intertwine to explain the human capacity for adaptation in the face of life’s and history’s twists and turns. When one reads—or rereads—the novel, it’s impossible not to associate it with the mythology […]

August 03, 2025

Where To?

Luis Rubio “What does it mean to live in a permanent state of exception?” asks Giorgio Agamben, a philosopher who has studied this modern tendency. His answer should give us chills: “the voluntary submission to institutionalized violence.” In other words: the establishment of a “legal civil war” disguised as a “need to preserve public security.” […]

July 27, 2025

New Forces

Luis Rubio “Trump has no idea what forces he has unleashed,” says Edward Luce, describing the series of erratic moves that have characterized the American president in his first months in office, generating brutal reactions, both politically and in the financial markets. I believe there are two ways to interpret this statement: one is that […]

July 20, 2025

False Dilemmas

Luis Rubio Public debate in Mexico has veered into a dead end. For some, the transition to democracy ended with the recent flurry of constitutional amendments passed hastily and without serious analysis of their implications. For others—especially the President—it’s all just noise, a storm in a teacup. Unfortunately, both sides are partly right, largely because […]