These files—thefts, frauds, domestic violence, injuries—represent the most urgent paradox of Mexico in 2026: while we pursue the monsters of organized crime, we have abandoned the ordinary justice that citizens experience every day in their streets and their homes.
This is not a management complaint. It is the portrait of a country trapped at a crossroads that demands more than political will: it requires simultaneous systemic transformation on at least four fronts that feed off each other. Navigating this reality requires understanding not only what is broken, but why it was broken and how it can be put back together.
The abandonment of ordinary justice
For two decades, Mexico prioritized the “war on drug trafficking” as the axis of public security. It was an understandable decision but devastating in its unintended consequences. The Federal Police, now the National Guard, absorbed resources, attention and legitimacy. Prosecutors focused on organized crime. The courts were saturated with associated crimes. Meanwhile, local police fell apart—no budget, no training, no morale.
The result: the theft of a cell phone in a popular neighborhood is an everyday reality without consequences. A sexual assault on public transport rarely comes to serious investigation. Frauds that devastate families are archived due to lack of capacity. Ordinary justice, which is what touches the lives of millions of Mexicans, became an upper-middle class service.
This has a corrosive effect that goes beyond numbers: it erodes trust in institutions precisely where it matters most—in the daily experience of security. A woman who sees her attacker circulating freely does not believe in the National Guard or in any reform, even if it is necessary.
Incomplete professionalization
Let’s talk about the local police officers. Many earn less than a retail worker, work hours that would violate any formal contract, lack basic equipment and, in too many cases, face pressure from cartels with superior firepower. Some become corrupted; others wear themselves down to indifference. Not a few die.
Training them requires long-term investment: not only training courses, but decent salaries, professional careers, equipment, supervision. Local prosecutors face a similar challenge: officials without experience in modern criminal investigation, without access to technology, in environments where organized crime has more resources than the State.
Here is the paradox: it is easier to send troops than to generate professional police. It is faster to announce an operation than to create robust research systems. But without professionalization, any operation is just temporary performance.
The disoriented judges
Few of us recognize the crossroads at which Mexican criminal judges find themselves. Mexico transitioned years ago from the inquisitorial to the adversarial system—a structural change equivalent to changing the foundations of a building while the inhabitants live in it. The judges went from being investigators to being arbitrators. The Public Ministry had to specialize in accusation. The defense had to be adversarial.
But this transition occurred without enough training, without enough resources, without enough maturation time. Result: inexperienced judges in a new system, pressured by too many cases, without access to reliable expert evidence. The system promises adversarial due process; Reality delivers institutional confusion.
The silent geopolitical factor
There is a dimension that is rarely discussed at the table: the dynamics of the geopolitics of security. The United States, with its insatiable demand for drugs, its weapons in circulation, its interest in regional stability, is a fundamental actor. Bilateral agreements, intelligence cooperation, diplomatic pressures—all of these shape our capabilities and our options.
Latin America, for its part, faces similar dynamics of institutional fragmentation. This matters because Mexico cannot solve these problems in isolation. Regional coordination, agreements on extradition and criminal cooperation, and shared drug policies are required.
Solutions are available
Here’s the crucial thing: these are not unsolvable crises. Other countries have navigated similar transitions. What is required is not very revolutionary but very demanding: sustained political will.
First, establish local justice systems with their own, autonomous resources, protected from political pressure. Municipal and state governments require real investigative capacity—not for large operations, but for theft, assault, and fraud to be seriously investigated.
Second, professionalize from within: competitive salaries for police and prosecutors, real careers, rigorous evaluation systems. This costs, but is cheaper than continuing with captured corporations.
