Mexico faces a presidential election in which the former ruling party, the PRI, may return to power. The talk will examine the reasons behind the “Putinization” of Mexico: the possibility of political regression due to the lack of substantive change over the last 12 years of National Action Party (PAN) rule. Dresser will focus on the main candidates and their campaign dynamics as well as on the implications of a PRI win in the context of the country's “war on drugs.” She will also address the structural factors that have made democratic consolidation and economic reforms difficult to carry out, turning Mexico into a country that seems condemned to subpar economic performance.

Denise Dresser is a professor of political science at the Instituto Tecnológico de México (ITAM), where she has taught since 1991. She writes a political column for the Mexican newspaper Reforma and the news weekly Proceso and won Mexico’s National Journalism Award in 2010.