Noted political analyst Denise Dresser takes a hard look at reforms initiated by the Peña Nieto administration.
Mexico waking up. Mexico moving forward. A country that — according to the new narrative — has shown that it’s ready to pact, negotiate, propose reforms, and approve them. A country that no longer wants to be hostage to archaic traditions and entrenched practices. A country ready to leave behind the nationalist position on sovereignty. Tossing out its heavy ideological baggage. Prepared to surmount 15 years of few reforms and little growth. The future is promising, the foreign press says. Mexico has crossed the threshold and approved reforms that had been politically unpalatable and historically rejected. Mexico has said goodbye to authoritarianism and needs not fear its return. The ruling party, the PRI, has reinvented itself and so has the country, the optimists insist. And the “new” PRI has been willing and able to push through the reforms it promised on the fiscal, telecommunications, energy, judicial, and political fronts.
