The Most Powerful

The Mexican newsmagazine Poder (which means "power" in Spanish) has published its annual list of the most powerful Mexicans. I wrote about the list last year, making two basic points: science and innovation were underrepresented among Mexico's elite, and Calderón had done a fantastic job locking down control of the nation's politics, evidenced by the high percentage of calderonistas occupying top spots. 

This year, my assessment is basically the same: Calderón and Carlos Slim occupy the top two spots, and Calderón's underlings are all over the place. There are a couple of areas worth highlighting: Barack Obama's new science advisor Mario Molina is on the general list of the 14 most powerful Mexicans. (The 99 most powerful are broken up into smaller lists of the 14 most powerful, and then specific lists for politicians, businessmen, artists and actors, journalists and academics, et cetera.) This is a step in the right direction, sort of; he's applying his scientific knowledge not in Mexico but in the US. 

Also, it's notable that in the battle for PRI supremacy, Enrique Peña Nieto appears below Manlio Fabio Beltrones, but in the PRD, Marcelo Ebrard is above Andrés Manuel López Obrador.