First Week of the ‘New’ Old in Mexico
It was a big weekend in Mexican history, one that I spent in blissful, disconnected ignorance with some friends in the mountainous jungle that surrounds Xalapa. Meanwhile, back in Mexico City some self-proclaimed anarchists were partying like it was 1999 — at...Loud Gringos
(I should mention, incidentally, that there is nothing louder than a group of gringos who, when convened in public, somehow feel the need to show off what a marvelous time they are having, with eruptions of offensively loud cackles. It’s their money, they can...![[Analysis] Mexican Elections 2012](https://i0.wp.com/davidsasaki.name/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Screen-Shot-2012-07-02-at-11.29.AM_.jpg?resize=455%2C189&ssl=1)
[Analysis] Mexican Elections 2012
How Mexico’s 2012 presidential election brought back the “Institutional Revolutionary Party” and how it divided the country into two: one informed by telenovelas and broadcast news, the other informed by blogs and social networks. I was taken by...
Helping Politicians Keep Their Promises
Politicians love to make promises. Here in Mexico, presidential contender Enrique Peña Nieto even spent the morning of the first official day of campaigning at a public notary’s office where he signed his name next to his first three campaign promises. But...![[Report] Parliamentary Power to the People](https://i0.wp.com/davidsasaki.name/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Screen-Shot-2012-03-29-at-1.46.PM-1.jpg?resize=974%2C675&ssl=1)
[Report] Parliamentary Power to the People
Brazil-based transparency and freedom of information scholar Greg Michener has authored the first major report on the use of online platforms to understand and monitor parliaments in Latin America. Commissioned by the Open Society Foundations, “Parliamentary...![[Inequality] A US – Latin America Middle Class Reversal?](https://i0.wp.com/davidsasaki.name/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Screen-Shot-2012-03-10-at-8.36.PM_.jpg?resize=489%2C411&ssl=1)
[Inequality] A US – Latin America Middle Class Reversal?
Last Sunday Jorge Castañeda wrote an opinion piece in the New York Times Sunday Review warning Americans what happens when a country doesn’t have a middle class. Yesterday he extended his argument in an hour-long interview with Tom Ashbrook. Castañeda argues...![[Translation] The Military and the Homicide Rate in Mexico: A Meditation](https://i0.wp.com/davidsasaki.name/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/OG-Merino1-1.jpg?resize=425%2C254&ssl=1)
[Translation] The Military and the Homicide Rate in Mexico: A Meditation
What follows is my translation of José Merino’s article for this month’s Nexos magazine. With clearly presented statistical analysis, he shows that the deployment of the Mexican military in the so-called “War on Drugs” has led to a sustained...
Fame, Followers, Anonymity and Activism
What follows is more or less a rough approximation of my notes for a presentation I gave on Monday at a conference organized by the United Nations Development Program and the Institute for Elections and Citizen Participation of Jalisco. The panel, “Technological...
#PublicidadOficial
In April 1982 then-President José López Portillo ordered all government agencies in Mexico to cancel their advertising contracts with Proceso Magazine. It was well known that López Portillo ran one of the most corrupt governments in the world at the time, but he was...Latest Photos
