What Carlos Slim gets about Mexican politics

It's not that Mexico's richest businessman has special favour from the government. It's that he's made himself indispensable.

The grumbling surrounding the apparent favour Carlos Slim has within Mexico’s government came to a fore this February. The allegations must have been a real pebble in his shoe for the world’s erstwhile richest man to have come out of his perennial silence. He gave a 3-and-a-half-hour long press conference to dispel the rumours.

When I heard of the presser my first thought was: Me thinks he doth protest too much. The truth, as always, was far more interesting and complex.