Jorge ZEPEDA
- Journalist, Economical and Political Consultant
Bio
Jorge Zepeda Patterson is a journalist, writer, and one of Mexico’s most influential public opinion analysts.
A graduate in economics from the University of Guadalajara, he also holds a master’s degree from the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences — FLACSO — and pursued doctoral studies in political science at the Sorbonne in Paris.
He began his journalistic training at El País in Madrid and went on to found and lead the Guadalajara-based daily Siglo 21, from its creation in 1991 until 30 April 1997. He later founded and directed Público, before joining El Universal in Mexico City in 1999 as Deputy Director, a position he held until 2001.
In 2000, he founded El Despertador, a publishing company behind the Sunday weekly Día Siete, which circulated until 2011 in several Mexican newspapers with a verified weekly circulation of 300,000 copies, as well as the business magazine Energía Hoy. On television, he also co-hosted Código with Raymundo Riva Palacio and Estela Livera, a programme produced by El Universal TV and Proyecto 40.
He served as Editorial Director of El Universal from 20 November 2008 to 2 December 2010. In 2011, he founded SinEmbargo, a digital media outlet dedicated to investigative and analytical journalism.
Jorge Zepeda Patterson is the author of several works of political analysis and journalism, including Los Suspirantes, a series devoted to Mexican presidential candidates, published in 2006, 2012, 2018 and 2024 in collaboration with several journalists. He also published La Presidenta, a biography of Claudia Sheinbaum released by Planeta in 2024, as well as Los Amos de México in 2009.
In 2013, he published his first novel, Los Corruptores, a political thriller rooted in investigative journalism, which was a finalist for the Hammett Prize. The following year, his novel Milena o el fémur más bello del mundo won the Planeta Prize, making him the first Mexican author to receive this distinction.
He later published several other novels, including Los Usurpadores, Muerte Contrarreloj and El Dilema de Penélope. His works have been translated into around twenty languages, and Netflix is expected to release an adaptation of his first novel in 2026.
He currently writes the column “Pensándolo bien” twice a week in the Americas edition of El País and in the newspaper Milenio.
Talks
