On Saturday, July 11, Mexico’s wealthiest and most violent Drug Cartel chief, Joaquin (el Chapo) Guzman escaped from the nation’s highest security prison about 45 miles west of Mexico City. The escape is providing a powerful insight into how fully the Mexican state is failing. Already weakened, the return of the ancient PRI authoritarian system is accelerating in decline. The nation’s decline has become topic number one in Republican Party campaigns as Donald Trump accuses the Mexican state of shipping its criminals to the U.S. much as Fidel Castro did as he emptied Cuban prisons.

In our book, Mexico-Path to a Failed State, we explained how the lack of a civic culture and growing distrust of the Mexican state was part of the failed state process. It is accelerating and will receive growing attention from a world stunned at the brutality of the Mexican state and now its brittle response to failures!