Without a Project & Leadership

ByJosé Romero

This editorial by José Romero originally appeared in the April 2, 2026 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper. The views expressed in this article are the authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect those of Mexico Solidarity Media or the Mexico Solidarity Project.

Mexico is not in crisis, but neither is it growing. And that, in the current global context, is not stability: it’s stagnation. We have had two decades of low growth and stagnant productivity. This is not a recent or temporary problem; it’s a long-term trend. The OECD’s own recent report confirms this: per capita income growth has been persistently weak and is not expected to change in the short term.

The problem isn’t the diagnosis, but the lack of a strategy. Mexico has grown accustomed to an economy that neither collapses nor progresses, to stability without transformation. This inertia might be manageable in another context, but it isn’t today. The world is changing rapidly. Production chains are being reorganized, technological competition is intensifying, and geopolitics is once again becoming decisive. Right now, countries with direction are repositioning themselves; those without are falling behind.

There is no direction here. Economic policy is moving without any coherence. Priorities are announced that don’t connect, decisions are corrected on the fly, and short-term responses are implemented without a clear idea of ​​where to go. Uncertainty has increased and is already affecting investment and growth. This is not by chance; it is the result of this lack of direction.

The United States is unwilling to allow Mexico to align itself more closely with other powers in strategic areas. The Mexican government is also unwilling to bear the cost of greater autonomy.

Added to this is a more fundamental problem: the capacity of the team responsible for conducting economic policy and international action is insufficient for a moment like this. They lack the experience to understand the environment, the ability to translate diagnoses into decisions, and the consistency to sustain them. This is not how you build a path forward; it’s how you manage day-to-day operations.

This is clearly reflected in the relationship with the United States. For decades, Mexico organized its economy around this link. It worked at the time, but today it is a constraint. The concentration of exports to that market limits the economy’s room for maneuver and makes it vulnerable to external decisions. There is talk of diversification, but nothing is done. And nothing is done because it is not only an economic problem, but a political one.

The United States is unwilling to allow Mexico to align itself more closely with other powers in strategic areas. But the problem isn’t solely external. The Mexican government is also unwilling to bear the cost of greater autonomy. It avoids straining relations and, at the same time, avoids pursuing an industrial policy that might affect established interests, particularly those of large transnational corporations. Thus, external constraints and internal indecisiveness reinforce each other.

Without its own strategy, economic and foreign policy end up being reduced to mere adaptation. There is no leadership, only adjustment; no direction, only caution. Mexico operates within limits it does not question. And when that happens, dependency ceases to be a condition and becomes a form of government.

A quarter of the six-year term has already passed. That’s the time it takes for a government to define its course. That didn’t happen here: what we have is inertia. And inertia, in a stagnant economy, is not neutral: it deepens the stagnation and reduces future development prospects.

Mexico faces a clear situation today: stability without growth, diagnosis without strategy, and government without leadership. Ideas are not lacking; what’s lacking is someone to articulate them and be willing to sustain them. Without a plan and without leadership, time ceases to be an opportunity. And what is a setback today will become irreversible tomorrow.