Do we like them?

Do we like Marcelo Ebrard?

Our score: 7 out of 10. A decent record on the right side of the harm test, held back by an open anti-corruption probe and years of Line 12 questions.

Marcelo Ebrard is one of Mexico's long-running political operators: head of government of Mexico City, foreign secretary, and now Economy Secretary under President Claudia Sheinbaum. He's also a former rival of hers, having sought the presidential nomination of the ruling party's side before she got it. That history colours almost everything about how he's covered.

The story of the moment is the London one. Reuters reported that complaints triggered an automatic probe into whether he broke any rules by having a relative live at the Mexican ambassador's residence for six months while he was foreign secretary. Reuters said he acknowledged the stay and denied public funds were used. Sheinbaum has kept him in the job, and as far as I could find, no finding has been published.

On the harm test, nothing nasty turned up. As Mexico City's leader he signed the capital's same-sex marriage law in December 2009 despite pressure from the federal government to veto it, and attended the first weddings. At the UN in 2019, as foreign secretary, he said Mexico's government considered itself feminist. I found no anti-trans campaigning, conspiracy talk, or dodgy company, though I only had search snippets rather than full articles.

His current job is trade, and he's been in the thick of Trump-era tariff fights and the USMCA review. In March 2026 he defended Mexico's tariff hikes on Chinese goods as a legitimate way to protect local industry, and played down talk of a trade fight with Beijing. Where you land on that depends on whether you read it as protecting workers or as bowing to Washington, which is what China has accused Mexico of.

The old stain is Mexico City's Line 12 metro line, which he built as mayor and which collapsed in 2021. The collapse killed 26 people, and political opponents have demanded he be held to account. As far as the reporting I saw shows, he has never been charged, and he has said he would cooperate with authorities. It's a question mark, not a verdict.

Put together, he's a pragmatic, career-long politician who passes the harm test and gets an asterisk on being a good egg, mainly because the London probe is still open. Late 2026 reports have him dodging questions about a 2030 presidential run and saying he's focused on the US trade talks.