Unmasked: López Obrador & The End of Make-Believe

One year after Mexico's historic 2018 election and the victory of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the Mexico Institute is honored to publish Luis Rubio's latest book on politics and governance in Mexico, Unmasked: López Obrador & the End of Make-Believe. Following on from A Mexican Utopia, The Problem of Power, and A World of Opportunities, Rubio reflects on the nature of the challenge facing President López Obrador today. The book looks at the causes of the Mexican people's disillusionment and attempts to understand the complexity that characterizes the world in which Mexico is set and from which it cannot detach itself. Unmasked concludes by presenting the opportunities that, if seized, could transform Mexico in ways that the Mexican electorate can only imagine.

As Rubio himself argues:

"The next years will be decisive for Mexico. They offer the possibility that the country will achieve an inclusive transformation, but also threaten to generate countless opportunities to destroy the little progress that has been made without providing feasible alternatives. Now that the voters have removed the mask of Mexico's fantasy of a prosperous present, is the time for the newly installed Morena to remove the masks of its own dogmas...The paradox is that López Obrador is in an exceptional position to make the changes required to free the resources that have been relegated, subdued, or prevented from developing. If, instead of pretending to lead Mexico back to a fictitious idyllic past, he were to focus on creating the conditions for it to prosper-if he decides to break through the stumbling blocks, special interests, and obstacles that hinder social mobility and accelerated, equal development-Mexico could change for the better in his six years in office."

This book is also available in Spanish.