In the mid-1980s, Marcelo Ebrard was invited by a government official who had formerly been his professor to work in Mexico’s Ministry of Planning and Spending. There he joined a cadre of young and ascending political stars, his colleagues including future governors, cabinet members and even a presidential candidate, Luis Donaldo Colosio, who was assassinated on the campaign trail in 1994. And yet Ebrard, though new to government, had a recognizable spark. “The only one who didn’t rise very fast was Marcelo, but he was the one I believed in the most,” says Manuel Camacho, then an undersecretary at the agency who before taking that job had taught Ebrard introductory social sciences at the Colegio de México. “He was the most efficient, the most... [Log in to read more]