ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on barriers to entry in the political and economic spheres in Mexico. The turning point in Mexico's economic liberalization started under De la Madrid's presidency, in 1985 –86, was that its main supporter and executor was Carlos Salinas de Gortari and his close circle of technocrats, politicians, and businessmen eager to benefit from a more liberalized economy. The accession to the presidency by Vicente Fox Quesada in 2000 marked a very important change in Mexican politics, if not in the country's economy. The condition of misplaced monopolies in the political and economic spheres accelerated and reached a low point during Fox's presidency. Any attempt to promote structural reforms along free market lines was opposed by the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) in Congress. The hegemony of the PRI was undermined in 1982 when the country's public finances were bankrupted by President Lopez Portillo and his corrupt administration.
