Public monopolies like Pemex, private monopolies like Telmex and Cemex, labor monopolies like the teachers’ union, media monopolies like Televisa, and the iron political lock the country’s three parties have on every level of electoral representation, are all stronger than before. Calderón has refused to touch these power structures, even though everyone, from the World Bank to left-wing rabble-rouser and former presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador, agree that they are the main impediments to Mexico’s progress.