One of the richest men in Mexico and Latin America, businessman Ricardo Salinas Pliego, has emerged as a future presidential candidate. On the threshold of a new political era for Mexico, his figure generates both expectation and controversy.
His emergence, more than circumstantial, seems to respond to the weariness of a country that sees—not without reason—a landscape saturated with unfulfilled promises, growing statism, and entrenched networks of privilege. Faced with this situation, Salinas Pliego proposes something radical: shaking up the system and offering a shift to the right, in the purest style of Trump, Berlusconi, and Milei, who function as models and warnings.
In a country where the Morena government has been accused of corroding institutions, spreading populism, and perpetuating state corruption disguised as “transformation,” this billionaire businessman claims to hold the key to rescuing Mexico. And not just the key: he proposes breaking locks, changing entire locks. In the face of “rancid socialism”—the kind that promises utopias while increasing clientelism and crushing private enterprise—Salinas Pliego presents himself as a disruptive alternative, a heavy weapon of liberal capitalism with a Latin American character.
Salinas Pliego – “A light at the end of the tunnel for millions of Mexicans.
His speech could connect him with the real Mexico: that country that works, that wants investment, genuine growth, and less bureaucracy. Mexico, tired of seeing its tax money given away to unproductive people who contribute nothing to the country, except votes for Morena. Salinas Pliego argues that the state must be reduced, that business must be freed, and that security and prosperity will come when the private sector is no longer seen as the enemy of the people.
This narrative fits into a Mexico that is tired of subsidies, of “social programs” that are repeated like a siren song, and of rulers who seem more interested in retaining power than in actually generating well-being.
In countries like Bolivia, where socialist populism reigned for decades, citizens are now giving right-wing leaders with capitalist ideologies the opportunity to govern, realizing that the left, far from solving socioeconomic problems, divides the population and deceives the intellectually vulnerable with false promises and manipulates them with clientelist programs using public funds.
Why might Mexico need a president like Salinas Pliego?
- Economic stagnation: Investment in Mexico today has slowed; global competition is unpredictable. A push from private enterprise, freed from its constraints, can inject dynamism.
- Corruption and impunity: While all parties are tainted, popular discontent with “designs from above” has grown. Morena’s premise of “not stealing, not lying, not betraying” has been violated time and again by those who swore “not to be equal.”
Salinas Pliego’s public discourse is harsh, direct, and not politically correct: he calls the enemies of the system “freeloaders.” He proposes that the state be reduced: fewer universal social programs, more targeted programs, or replacement by private initiative.
At a time when the country seems on the brink—violence, debt, stagnation, and polarization, Salinas Pliego’s approach could be seen by millions of Mexicans as a lifeline. The future is open.
