Mexico - September 2026

Mexico’s federal education ministry (SEP) ordered every school in the country operating under a ‘militarizada’ (militarised), ‘militar’ (military), or ‘castrense’ (army) designation to close before the start of the 2026-2027 school year on 31 August. The order followed the death of Dafne Zapata Quintos, a 13-year-old who died during a summer course at the Academia Militarizada Marina Doenitz military academy in Ciudad Madero, Tamaulipas state.

Mexican law recognises two categories of military-style education. The official one, the Sistema Educativo Militar, or military education system, is run by the defence ministry (Defensa), in accordance with the law of military education, which governs the training of personnel for the army, air force, and national guard.

However, the SEP order targeted ‘academias particulares de tipo militar’, private schools governed separately by a 1943 regulation issued under former president Manuel Ávila Camacho (1940-1946). Under this regulation, Defensa approves a school’s transformation into this regime, but only once the school has separately obtained SEP authorisation to operate, and any uniforms it uses must be approved by Defensa to ensure they remain visibly distinct from military ones. That separate SEP authorisation requirement comes from the general education law, either as express state authorisation or a Reconocimiento de Validez Oficial de Estudios (RVOE), an official authorisation issued by SEP to confirm that a private school’s programme is legally incorporated into the national educational system.

The order was prompted by a fatality at one of these private military-style institutions. Zapata died on 16 July, several days after entering the Doenitz academy. The school said she fainted while bathing. However, her mother, Alejandra Quintos, told the local press that she died after four days of torture, a claim later corroborated by former students. The Tamaulipas state attorney general, Jesús Eduardo Govea Orozco, has stated that she died by drowning, while the Tamaulipas state attorney general’s office (FGJT) confirmed that it was investigating the case as femicide and that it had detained the academy’s director and two employees.

Zapata’s death was at least the third tied to a military-style academy in three years. Zamir Pinto, 16, died in 2023 at an academy in Estado de México (Edomex) and Erick Leonardo Terán Torbellín, 13, died in 2025 at a camp run by the Academia Militarizada Ollin Cuauhtémoc in Morelos state, where his family said he was beaten so badly that his internal organs were ruptured.

On 29 July Education Minister Mario Delgado ordered state authorities to review every RVOE and permit held by military-style schools nationwide and to ensure no schools continued operating under the ‘militar’, ‘militarizada’, or ‘castrense’ designations. Those still operating under these designations face suspension and closure and affected schools must hand over students’ academic records and refund payments for services not yet delivered, so students can transfer without affecting their academic standing.

President Claudia Sheinbaum backed the move on 30 July, saying abuse could not be excused under “the pretext of discipline”. By 10 August, Delgado reported that 26 such schools had been identified nationwide. He said one had been closed by the Tamaulipas state government, and the rest were being pushed to transform their curricula towards civic and humanist content rather than military framing.

Awareness raising

The SEP scheduled a national awareness day against abuse and mistreatment in schools for 7 September, in a bid to reinforce protocols to guarantee classrooms are safe spaces for children and adolescents. The day addresses safety in all kinds of schools, rather than focusing solely on the issues that emerged in the private military-style academies.