Summary and review ofSlim: A Political Biography of the World's Richest Mexican

Reviewed by Diario de un Inversor · UpdatedJuly 8, 2026

Our review

Diego Enrique Osorno is a Mexican investigative journalist known for his work on drug trafficking and power, and he approaches Carlos Slim from that tradition: he is not interested in investment method but in the political machinery that made it possible. The book rests on several years of work, archives, more than a hundred interviews, and three direct conversations with Slim totalling some seven hours of recordings. Its central argument is that Slim's fortune cannot be explained without the 1990 privatisation of Telmex and the near-monopoly position that the terms of that deal allowed him to consolidate over two decades. Osorno documents the relationship between economic and political power in Mexico without lapsing into easy denunciation: he gives Slim space, records his version, and lets the contradictions stand on their own. The result is uncomfortable both for readers seeking a business success story and for those expecting a condemnation. It is a political biography, as the subtitle announces, and it should be read knowing that financial analysis of Slim's companies is deliberately out of scope.

Key takeaways

• The 1990 Telmex privatisation is the fact that structures everything that follows.
• Osorno gives space to his subject's version rather than building a prosecution.
• The book treats regulatory power as an economic variable, not as background scenery.
• Financial analysis of Slim's companies is deliberately outside the book's scope.

Fact

Published in 2015; Osorno spoke with Slim on three occasions, producing around seven hours of recordings, and drew on more than a hundred interviews.