Mexico - October 2026

On 1 September Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum delivered her second state-of-the-nation report, or Informe. The report summarised progress made in key areas including the economy, security, infrastructure, and social programmes. While Sheinbaum referred to the “difficulties” that her government has had with the US administration of President Donald Trump, the Informe largely failed to mention other challenges facing her government, particularly regarding human rights concerns.

The Mexican branch of human rights NGO Amnesty International (AI) highlighted this absence in a statement issued on 3 September, stating that while Sheinbaum had presented “advances and results” in her Informe, “some of the most serious human rights crises that Mexico faces were left out of the report”. In particular, the NGO pointed to the disappearance crisis, dangers facing journalists and human rights defenders, and violence against women as areas needing greater attention. AI also expressed alarm about Sheinbaum’s citing of the consolidation of the national guard (GN), a supposedly civilian security force that has gradually been militarised, as a pillar of her security strategy.

The disappearance crisis is perhaps the biggest human rights issue facing the Mexican government. Over 132,000 people remain missing in Mexico, according to the national registry of disappeared and missing persons (RNPDNO). In the absence of effective State solutions, many relatives of the disappeared have formed search collectives to look for their missing loved ones. The dangers facing these collectives, and particularly their female members, have been in the spotlight recently. This follows an armed attack on Alma Rosa Rojo, the founder of Voces Unidas por la Vida, a search collective based in Sinaloa state, on 29 August in which her and her daughter were hospitalised, and the killing of Patricia Negrete Tafoya, a member of the search collective Una Promesa Por Cumplir in Guanajuato state in June [SSR-26-08]. Despite the recent renewed attention to the problem and the scale of the crisis, Sheinbaum made no mention of the issue in her Informe.

Sheinbaum also failed to address the dangers facing journalists. This comes despite the murder of another Mexican journalist – the eighth so far this year according to press freedom groups – on 29 August. Ricardo Zúñiga Rosas, a photographer and local journalist, was killed in the municipality of Tehuitzingo, in the state of Puebla. Like several other Mexican journalists killed this year [SSR-26-09], the murder took place after Zúñiga had publicly reported threats linked to his reporting. According to international press freedom organisation Reporters Without Borders (RSF), this was the second journalist killing in Puebla in two months, following that of Josué Martínez Contreras on 16 July. RSF states that Zúñiga was the eighth reporter in Mexico to be killed due to their work in 2026 – an average of one dead journalist per month and only one fewer than its total tally for 2025.

Sheinbaum did allude to the issue of femicides in her speech, noting that her government had presented a femicide law to congress as part of a section of her speech on what her administration has done for women [SSR-26-09]. These efforts also include enshrining women’s rights in the constitution, opening Libre women’s support centres, and distributing manifestos on women’s rights. While AI said the mention of the femicide law was “relevant”, it added that “faced with the persistence of femicidal violence, legal reforms must be translated into prevention, investigation, justice, and effective reparation”, stating that “violence against women is not resolved by laws alone”.

During her speech, Sheinbaum touted the success of her security strategy, which she said had reduced murders by 51% since she took office. She said that “peace and tranquillity” were a priority for her government, noting that “thousands of national guards, soldiers, marines, security agents, and public servants work every day on the four pillars of the national security strategy”. AI raised one of these pillars – the consolidation of the GN – as a concern, saying that “Mexico needs to advance towards a public security model that is civilian in nature and respectful of human rights”.

The militarisation of public security in Mexico was a cornerstone of the presidency of Sheinbaum’s mentor and predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018-2024). Sheinbaum appears to have continued this policy, pledging support for a reform promulgated by López Obrador in the final days of his presidency, which placed the GN under military command [SSR-24-11]. Rights groups have consistently argued that putting the military in charge of public security risks an increase in abuses such as torture, arbitrary detention, forced disappearances, and extrajudicial executions.

With Sheinbaum embarking on her third year in office and eyeing key midterm elections next year, the focus of the Informe was to project the success of her government and unity of her ruling Movimiento Regeneración Nacional (Morena). However, she is likely to continue to face pressure on these key human rights issues from civil society organisations, NGOs, and the political opposition. As AI said, “what isn’t named continues to exist”, and the recurrence of enforced disappearances, femicides, and journalist killings will ensure these issues remain in the spotlight, while stagnation in major human rights investigations will fuel further calls for the government to step up its efforts to respond to rights abuse cases.

Ayotzinapa

Arguably Mexico’s most infamous human rights case is the 2014 disappearance of 43 students from the Ayotzinapa teacher training college in Guerrero state. Progress was made in the long-stalled investigation into the case on 6 August, when authorities announced the arrest of Ángel Aguirre Rivero, the governor of Guerrero state at the time of the disappearance, in relation to the case. Aguirre was later charged on 12 August with the crime of enforced disappearance over his alleged hiding of relevant information.