All while the country continues with intense interventions to eradicate the measles outbreak in the first months and the population waits for the promise of access to health in any hospital to be fulfilled.
In the middle of the year, the 2026 Soccer World Cup will be held in Mexico, the United States and Canada, countries that will also review their free trade agreement after maintaining tense relations in 2025 due to Donald Trump’s continued threats and imposition of tariffs.
It remains to be seen how the bilateral relationship between the United States and Mexico develops, which is tense this year due to the water from the international dams they share.
Along with political discussions, 2026 will also be a year marked by the inauguration, continuity and bidding of large federal and Mexico City public works. Among them, the railway, road and urban mobility projects that the governments of Mexico and Mexico City have scheduled for this year stand out.
Throughout the period, tenders and works will be carried out for the 3,000 kilometers of passenger trains projected by Claudia Sheinbaum, although there are no defined opening dates.
(Mario Jasso)
For now we expect this for the Mexican political agenda in 2026, the year that will say goodbye to the first quarter of the 21st century.
January
Electoral reform at the door
In the first month of the year, the agenda starts with the electoral reform initiative that President Claudia Sheinbaum will send to the Congress of the Union, which foresees the disappearance of the Public Local Electoral Bodies (Oples) and the reduction of legislators by proportional representation, known as “pluris”.
The president has said that the proposal prepared by the Presidential Commission for Electoral Reform, headed by Pablo Gómez Álvarez, will be delivered in “mid-January” in order for it to be immediately analyzed in Congress.
Preventive detention, up for debate
Also in January, the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) will resume its sessions. Although there is still no date to discuss informal preventive detention, it is expected to take place in the first months of the year.
The new Court will have two options: abide by the resolution of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (CoIDH), which ordered the disappearance of this figure because it violates individual guarantees, or follow the trend of the party in power that, far from eliminating it, extended the crimes that merit it.
For three years the Supreme Court has had the files in its hands, but the matter will be analyzed until 2026.
Universal Health
The registration of the population to the Universal Health System will begin in January. It is a national registry that will give each person a credential so that, starting in 2027, you can receive medical care without obstacles in any public health system, whether from the IMSS, ISSSTE or IMSS Bienestar.
The start of the works
Also in January, the most relevant tender of the year in railway matters will be held: the Secretariat of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation (SICT) and the Railway Transport Regulatory Agency (ARTF) scheduled for January 13, 2026 to receive proposals for the contract for the design, supply, installation and commissioning of railway systems for the Mexico–Querétaro and Querétaro–Irapuato passenger trains. This process marks the formal start of the technical phase of the new passenger train corridors promoted by the Government of Mexico.
Likewise, during the second week of January, work associated with section III of the Querétaro–Irapuato train is scheduled to begin, once the corresponding bidding decisions have been issued.
(Photo: Presidency)
In addition, the Mexico-Toluca Interurban Train “El Insurgente” is scheduled to begin operations in January 2026 with its complete stations between Zinacantepec, Toluca, Santa Fe, Vasco de Quiroga and the Observatorio terminal, which will connect the State of Mexico with Mexico City in an estimated time of 40 minutes.
This expansion includes the opening to commercial service of the Vasco de Quiroga and Observatorio stations, thus completing the seven stations of the railway corridor for passenger transportation.
February
40 hours
The Congress of the Union will begin the analysis of the reform to reduce the working day to 40 hours per week. Although this proposal was presented to the Senate in December 2025, it will be analyzed starting the regular period of sessions on February 1.
Its debate will bring disagreements because the legislators of the Citizen Movement (MC) have criticized that the initiative does not require granting two days of rest per week.
Previously, Sheinbaum agreed with the country’s businessmen that the reduction in the working day would be progressive: starting in 2027 it will be reduced by two hours per year until 2030, when it will be established at 40 hours.
water agreement
Mexico committed to sending the United States 249 million cubic meters of water of the 1,000 it owes, according to the Water Treaty, no later than January 31. So it will be in February when it will be confirmed if this was achieved and if it will have an impact on farmers in the north of the country.
They ask to prioritize the irrigation season so as not to run out of water and affect crops. But if Mexico fails to comply, it will have to face another battle against Trump, who has already threatened to impose new tariffs if the water is not sent.
(JULIO CESAR AGUILAR/AFP)
