MEXICO CITY — When voters tossed out the ruling party in national elections six years ago, they gave a resounding no to a continuation of a 71-year political monopoly.
But in another arena in which they can wield their votes -- with their pocketbooks -- Mexicans continue to be frustrated by a lack of true choice.
Placing a call? For the minority of Mexicans who can afford a phone, their service comes from a telecom group that controls 94% of land lines and 80% of cellular service, charging rates that are among the highest in the world.
Watching TV? Two behemoths own 94% of Mexico's television stations, and recent legislation probably only served to strengthen their grip.
Buying a beer? Whatever the brand, chances are it was brewed by one of two companies whose combined share of the market tops 99%.
With a presidential election coming in July, Mexicans are debating the merits of three major candidates and a host of minor ones vying to succeed Vicente Fox, who is prevented by law from seeking another term.
But analysts and scholars of Mexican business say the country's oligopolies and monopolies, in both the private and public sectors, may prove tougher to dislodge than the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which for decades ran things until Fox of the National Action Party was elected president in 2000.
"Mexico has been a paradise to create and sustain unhealthy monopoly practices," said Mexico City political scientist Ricardo Raphael, a researcher at the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education, who blames weak antitrust legislation and Mexico's long history of crony capitalism for concentrating power in relatively few hands.
Economists say business monopolies have saddled Mexican consumers with high prices, slowed the country's economic growth and exacerbated the divide between rich and poor.
Nearly half of Mexico's 106 million people live in poverty. Yet it has more billionaires than Switzerland -- 10 last year -- according to Forbes magazine's latest list of the world's richest people. Most of them built their fortunes in Mexican industries that have little or no competition.
And the power brokers may only be strengthening their hands these days. Mexico's business barons have been aggressively defending their turf, rivaling the nation's presidential contenders for headlines.
