Security & Strategic Review - February 2022

Medicine shortages remain a thorn in the side of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s government. Many attribute the crisis to the centralisation of the medicine procurement and distribution system in 2019. The overhaul supposedly aimed to reduce costs, root out corruption and de-monopolise the market. However, the reality has seen a sustained lack of critical medicines, prompting repeated protests, criminal investigations and profound frustration over a system that does not seem fit for purpose. López Obrador started the year faced with mounting pressure to fix the problem, with direct appeals from the medical community, the political opposition and from within his own party.