Lacey on Mexico

Marc Lacey has written a couple of absorbing dispatches from Mexico City this week, one about Marcelo Ebrard's Viagra-distribution plan, and another about Carlos Slim. The latter offers a credible explanation for the relative popularity of the mega-billionaire: he comes across as basically normal, or as normal as such a rich man could be, which is just a roundabout way of congratulating him for not being a sociopath.

It is not merely Mr. Slim’s resources that help swing coverage his way, Mexican journalists say. Rather, they say, Mr. Slim, a widowed father of six, has an unassuming, avuncular persona.

He often shuffles into events alone, his bodyguards well out of sight. Addressing the press, Mr. Slim can appear ill at ease, resembling at times a small business owner rather than Mexico’s richest man.

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“We journalists cover so many bad guys here in Mexico, so many big egos, that Slim, despite all his faults, doesn’t appear all that bad,” said Mr. Riva Palacio, the Mexico City journalist.