We explain the main problems that Mexico faces in the 21st century.
In this article we briefly list those social problems in Mexico that we believe deserve attention, in order to inform the international community about the difficulties that the population of this beautiful country is going through.
The 8 most serious social problems in Mexico
Mexico is currently chaired by Andrés Manuel López Obrador, since December 2018. The country that he received in office was in the midst of a catastrophe from the point of view of human rights . This is due in part to the fact that the practices followed by its former president, Enrique Peña Nieto, did not alleviate a very serious situation that had been going on for several decades.
Below we explain some of these problems.
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1. Justice issues
Mexican justice is, today, inefficient in terms of carrying out its work of punishing aggressors and defending its people. Corruption occurs on a large scale throughout the country, but the justice system has made no effort to stop it . It has also utterly failed to protect victims of violence and human rights violations.
The corruption of the legal system also ensures a system in which the defense and the prosecution, in some cases, are in cahoots to influence the outcome of the trial, especially as regards the prosecution of criminals (especially those linked to mafias). ) and abuses by political leaders.
This has resulted, among other things, in impunity for crimes carried out by the security forces themselves , who have committed extrajudicial murders, disappeared people and practiced torture on detainees.
2. Military abuses
Due to the rise of organized crime and drug-related violence (very important social problems that should also be pointed out), Mexico has been forced to rely on the army to defend its population .
This dependence on the military force has led to problems of violence by the military against the civilian population. Between 2012 and 2018, more than 4,600 complaints were received by the human rights commission alleging military abuses.
In 2014, these military abuses began to be judged by the civil justice system, which, as we mentioned in the previous point, is not very effective, but even so, it was in a position of greater neutrality than the military courts. Between 2012 and 2016, there were only 16 soldiers convicted of abuses, despite having more than 500 open investigations .
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3. Torture
Torture is sadly a common practice in this country. The reasons for torture are mainly utilitarian, to obtain information and confessions from detainees. It is usually exercised over people detained, usually arbitrarily, while they are temporarily in military bases or illegal detention centers, before being handed over to the prosecution for processing.
According to surveys carried out by the Mexican statistics institution (INEGI), 64% of people in prison were arrested with physical violence, including electrocution, suffocation, temporary drowning or beatings . The fact that 28% of prisoners reported threats against their own families is not at all light.
These tortures are not prosecuted by justice for practical purposes.
4. Enforced disappearances
Since 2006, state security forces have generated a problem of enforced disappearances, as have criminal organizations.
More than 37,400 people have disappeared in Mexico since 2006. Since then, more than 3,900 bodies have been found in more than 1,300 clandestine graves . Police and prosecutorial investigations are notoriously ineffective in investigating disappearances, often leaving the burden of investigation on the shoulders of the families of the disappeared.
The bodies of the victims found are also not identified or treated correctly. There have been cases of refrigerated trucks used for more than 2 years to store more than 250 corpses, of which only 60 had been identified in that period. The morgues are, at times, too full to support the volume of corpses of the disappeared.
5. Attacks on the press
Freedom of the press in Mexico is a right that is very dangerous when it comes to exercising it. Those journalists who speak about organized crime or the authorities receive threats and attacks from both sides. More than 70% of journalists have practiced self-censorship for fear of their personal safety and that of those close to them .
More than 110 journalists have been killed and 25 have disappeared between 2000 and 2018, but these numbers are not exact and there are indications that the problem could be even more serious.
Despite promises from the Mexican federal government to protect journalists, aid is scant and often late. The authorities do not properly investigate these crimes, with 90% of them unfinished today.
6. Sexism
Gender violence is another alarming problem in this country. Victims are often blamed to a greater or lesser degree for their alleged lack of chastity and purity , resulting in lesser penalties for offenders and rapists.
Several Mexican states also recognize the right to life from the moment of conception. This means that abortion is strictly prohibited in these states, causing deaths and mutilations of women who, due to the need to seek dangerous options to be able to abort, undergo practices that are extremely dangerous for their health.
Some of the barriers that women have to overcome in order to exercise their reproductive rights are aggression and threats from the community and the authorities. Between 2007 and 2016, 98 women were imprisoned in Mexico for the simple act of having an abortion .
The United Nations has decided to take action on the matter, urging the country to take real and effective measures to prevent discrimination against women, inside and outside the workplace.
7. Migration crisis
Its close position to the United States makes Mexico a transit point for several migratory routes of communities affected by different social problems, usually from less privileged countries than Mexico. Many of these immigrants are denigrated and treated with violence .
Between 2014 and 2016, more than 5,000 crimes against immigrants were committed in just 5 of the 31 Mexican states.
8. Discrimination based on sexual orientation
Despite the fact that in Mexico City and 11 states have legalized homosexual marriage, in the rest of the states the right to marriage between people of the same sex is blocked by the constitution itself:
In 2015, the Mexican Supreme Court declared these marital unions unconstitutional.
Other Mexican social problems
Without trying to downplay them, there are other social problems in Mexico that have not been addressed in this article. Limited access to education or health, the disparity between rich and poor, pollution… Although no country is perfect, Mexico needs to catch up with the rest of the international community .
Its extraordinary wealth must be used for the betterment of society, which does not support the violence and oppression that is constantly exerted on it.
Bibliographic references
- Human rights watch: Events in Mexico (2017). Extracted from https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2018/country-chapters/mexico
- John FH Purcell. (1981). Mexican Social Issues. Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science, 34(1), 43-54.
To the classic question “what do you do?” I always answer “basically I am a psychologist”. In fact, my academic training has revolved around the psychology of development, education and community, a field of study influenced my volunteer activities, as well as my first work experiences in personal services.