The novelist Mario Vargas Llosa once labelled the 71-year period of government in Mexico by the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) the ‘perfect dictatorship’. The 2012 electoral victory of Enrique Peña Nieto marked the return to power of the PRI after a 12-year hiatus. Many commentators wondered whether the PRI really had changed or whether this was a case of ‘old wine in new bottles’.
Peña Nieto entered government on a reformist agenda. Last year he instituted his Pact for Mexico, which encompassed energy, justice, political reform and social development, as well as market-friendly reforms relating to education, taxation and telecommunications. Along with Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey, Mexico has been anointed as one of the MINT economies by Jim O’Neill who a few years earlier designated Brazil, Russia, India and China the BRICs. In common with other MINT economies, Mexico’s advantage lies in the youth of its workforce and its geographical proximity to a major market – the United States.
