The most-subscribed English-language Substack on Mexico. Delivering analysis of Mexico’s politics, economy, and business. Click to read Mexico Decoded, by Viri Rios, a Substack publication with thousa...

Mexico Decoded’s weekly briefing makes sense of the news that matters

Why Mexico’s rural protests are about dismantling one of the most powerful —and least understood— economic coalitions in the country.

Mexico Decoded’s weekly briefing makes sense of the news that matters

The recent protests claimed to represent them. The data tells a very different story.

Mexico Decoded’s weekly briefing makes sense of the news that matters

A quiet bureaucratic trick is reshaping the country’s homicide data

Mexico Decoded’s weekly briefing makes sense of the news that matters

A fact about trade that Washington can’t afford to ignore

Mexico Decoded’s weekly briefing makes sense of the news that matters

What Mexico reveals about America’s quiet plan to turn globalization into a hierarchy of obedience.

Mexico Decoded’s weekly briefing makes sense of the news that matters

In this episode of Mexico Decoded podcast, we dive into one of the most misunderstood yet essential forces shaping Mexico: its bureaucracy.

Mexico long resisted the radical right. Now its conservative party is testing what happens when they don't.

Mexico Decoded’s weekly briefing makes sense of the news that matters

A paradox of ambition and loneliness is rewriting the story of the global incel.

Mexico Decoded’s weekly briefing makes sense of the news that matters

Today, on Mexico Decoded Podcast, we will dive into the groundbreaking ways Mexico is rethinking drug consumption.

How global fame collided with local reality in the story of a taco stand that became a world-class irony.

Mexico Decoded’s weekly briefing makes sense of the news that matters

Claudia Sheinbaum’s first year in power is reshaping her country — and what it means to be a leftist politician.

Mexico Decoded’s weekly briefing makes sense of the news that matters

Hollywood tells us people join drug cartels for money, power, and glamour. What’s really happening is far more chilling.

Mexico Decoded’s weekly briefing makes sense of the news that matters

A case study in how economies fail when power and privilege replace competition.

A bold tax experiment on whether governments can change taste itself

Mexico Decoded’s weekly briefing makes sense of the news that matters

In this episode of the Mexico Decoded podcast, I speak with Omar García Ponce, Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University, about what decades of...

Prompted by the U.S. Mexico is embracing a new pro-business model not seen in decades.

Mexico Decoded’s weekly briefing makes sense of the news that matters

My answer to a viral Substack that tried to explain it — and got Mexico all wrong.

Mexico just fired every judge and replaced them with elected ones — a democratic experiment no country has ever dared to try.

Mexico Decoded’s weekly briefing makes sense of the news that matters

What a secret army of 30,000 social workers reveal about how democracies can get closer to their citizens.

In this episode of the Mexico Decoded podcast, I speak with Ioan Grillo, one of the world’s leading journalists on Mexico’s drug war, to examine the myth of Mexico as a “narco-state”, how do cartels a...

What President Sheinbaum’s flagship housing program can teach us about policy-made disasters.

Mexico Decoded’s weekly briefing makes sense of the news that matters

We explore why family background shapes income and opportunity far more in Mexico than in the United States, with economist Luis Monroy-Gómez-Franco. A must-listen for anyone interested in inequality,...

Mexico Decoded’s weekly briefing makes sense of the news that matters

How Mexico lifted 13 million people out of poverty without an economic boom.

Trump says the military could take on cartels. The fallout might be far greater than anyone expects.

In the first episode of Mexico Decoded, we unpack Morena’s rise, judicial reform, and democratic backsliding with Edwin Ackerman. Essential listening on anyone following Latin American politics.

Mexico Decoded’s weekly briefing makes sense of the news that matters

A ruthless strategy that keeps Mexico yielding without a trade war

A masterclass on how U.S. politics and global trade shape corporate strategy and consumer demand.