MEXICO CITY, MEXICO – FEBRUARY 23: Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo speaks during the daily morning briefing at the Palacio Nacional on February 23, 2026 in Mexico City, Mexico. The Secretariat of National Defense of Mexico confirmed that during a security operation in Tapalpa, Jalisco, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho”, leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, was killed. Mexican authorities have confirmed the deaths of more than 25 members of the armed forces in various cartel attacks since the operation that killed Oseguera. (Photo by Christopher Rogel Blanquet/Getty Images)
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It is a shame that Mexico is a neighbor of the United States. This is not a dig at Mexico or its people, but rather at Mexican politicians.
Since there is a thriving US economy north of Mexico, in which people of Mexican descent play an important role in maintaining the uplift, Mexican politicians need not be serious about implementing development-related policies. And they don’t need to because they are constantly being bailed out by the United States.
Evidence to support the above claim is found in the $61 billion remitted to Mexico last year by Mexican workers in the US. With so many Mexicans working so productively in the US and shipping tens of billions worth of their output, Mexico’s economy remains much more vibrant than it would be if Congo, North Korea, or Peru bordered Mexico.
Which is ironically Mexico’s internal problem. With the world’s richest country next door, the country’s political class once again does not have to pursue policies of economic freedom that are so associated with development. The US takes care of things for them.
The tens of billions sent annually add more to Mexico’s economy than tourism and oil. While Mexican workers in the US add significant value to the US economy, they add essential value to the Mexican economy. Unfortunately, presidents like Claudia Sheinbaum and Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (Sheinbaum’s predecessor) operate with the full knowledge that the US economy will always protect them from themselves.
In Sheinbaum’s case, San Diego, California-based Sempra Energy had been working for years with approval from Mexican regulators and the U.S. Department of Energy to build an LNG terminal in Sinaloa. Millions had been spent on this four-year project only to have Sheinbaum’s government deny the necessary permits for its completion. More recently, the Sheinbaum administration canceled Royal Caribbean’s plans to create a $1 billion “Perfect Day Mexico” cruise destination in Mahahual.
Traveling back in time to Lopez Obrador’s presidency, a partially built $13 billion Mexico City-based airport was canceled, along with a Modelo project that had been considered in Mexicali. Readers can obviously see where this is going.
A persistent anti-business, anti-investment mentality infects Mexico’s political class to the detriment of the nation’s economy. Investment boosts economic growth, but as the political class has demonstrated by its actions that capital flows into the country will not be treated well, it is inevitable that sources of capital will increasingly look away from Mexico when considering where to put money to work.
What’s sad is that Sheinbaum, Lopez Obrador, and Mexican politicians past and future seem to know they can run the country with a bang. They know that no matter what mistakes they make, their rich neighbor to the north will continue to bail them out with policies not unlike those of Mexico, precisely because US economic policy, regardless of the person or party in power, always ultimately leans in favor of growth and prosperity.
Mexicans understand this very well, and that’s why they continue to risk their lives to get to the US for something better. What is very sad, but also chilling, is that people like Claudia Sheinbaum know this too, and instead of moving towards development policies that would allow their citizens to remain in Mexico, they continue to act as if the US is their neighbor. Which means the Mexican people must regularly escape for a better life, which unfortunately saves the Sheinbaums of the world from their own ineptitude.
