Morning light settles gently over Mexico City, catching on the edges of concrete and jacaranda branches, the city waking as it always has—vendors lifting shutters, buses exhaling at corners, radios murmuring the day’s first news. Beneath this ordinary rhythm, another pulse continues, quieter but insistent: the question of security, of how a nation protects itself without hardening beyond recognition. One year into Claudia Sheinbaum’s presidency, that question lingers in the air, unresolved, carried from street to street like dust.
When Sheinbaum assumed office, she inherited not only the weight of expectation but a philosophy shaped by continuity. Her predecessor’s doctrine—often summarized as “hugs, not bullets”—sought to soften the state’s posture toward violence, prioritizing social programs and economic inclusion over confrontation. It was an approach rooted in the belief that crime grows in the absence of opportunity, and that prevention could succeed where force had failed. Over the past year, that idea has been tested by reality’s sharper edges.
The statistics, when they appear in official briefings, speak in careful language. Homicide rates have edged downward in some regions, while others remain stubbornly violent. Organized crime, adaptive and patient, has shifted routes and methods, as it always does. Federal forces continue to patrol highways and ports, sometimes visible, sometimes conspicuously absent. The National Guard, expanded under the previous administration, remains a central instrument—its presence normalized, its mandate stretched between civilian policing and military discipline.
Sheinbaum’s own imprint has been subtle rather than dramatic. A scientist by training, she has favored data-driven assessments and coordination between federal and state authorities. There have been renewed investments in intelligence sharing and technology, quieter moves that rarely make headlines. At the same time, social spending—scholarships, youth employment programs, urban development—has been defended as the long arc of security policy, bending slowly toward stability rather than immediate calm.
Yet the country’s geography resists neat solutions. Along northern corridors, where commerce and contraband flow side by side, violence flares with a familiar unpredictability. In parts of the south, communities navigate a different insecurity, one tied to local power structures and historical neglect. For many citizens, policy debates feel distant; what matters is whether a road is safe after dark, whether a bus arrives, whether silence at night signals peace or forewarning.
Critics argue that restraint has blurred into hesitation, that criminal groups read patience as permission. They point to high-profile attacks and unresolved disappearances as evidence that the state’s grip remains incomplete. Supporters counter that the past offers little comfort—that decades of militarized responses delivered force without peace, numbers without trust. Between these positions lies the administration’s careful balancing act, maintaining continuity while adjusting tone, seeking results without spectacle.
As the first year closes, there is no dramatic pivot to announce, no decisive victory to declare. Instead, there is persistence: in policies that favor prevention, in security forces that remain deployed, in a government wary of abandoning its own philosophy. The question is not whether bullets have replaced hugs, but whether either alone can answer the country’s layered realities.
By evening, the city exhales again. Lights flicker on, traffic thins, and conversations turn inward, toward family tables and private hopes. Security, for now, remains a work in progress—less a single policy than an ongoing negotiation between ideals and urgency. One year on, Mexico continues to walk that narrow path, carrying both its doubts and its determination into another night.
AI Image Disclaimer Illustrations were created using AI tools and are not real photographs.
Sources Government of Mexico National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) Secretaría de Seguridad y Protección Ciudadana Reuters El Universal