Domestic policy
Sheinbaum continued her predecessor's practice of holding "mañaneras", regular press briefings in the morning.
On 2 October 2024, the anniversary of the Tlatelolco massacre, Sheinbaum issued a decree acknowledging the State's responsibility for the killings. The decree included a public apology, which was delivered by Secretary of the Interior Rosa Icela Rodríguez. Faced with what many described as a looming constitutional crisis, Sheinbaum rejected a Supreme Court proposal to strike down parts of the judicial reform bill passed by López Obrador, asserting that the judiciary has no authority to review constitutional amendments and signaling she would not comply with any adverse ruling. She subsequently published a bill enshrining constitutional supremacy, which limited legal challenges to constitutional amendments strictly to procedural grounds.
Sheinbaum’s security strategy is built around four core pillars: addressing the root causes of violence, strengthening the National Guard, enhancing intelligence and investigative capabilities, and maintaining constant communication between the security cabinet and the country's federative entities. She appointed Omar García Harfuch to head the Secretariat of Security and Civilian Protection (SSCP), a role he previously held in her Mexico City cabinet. Her administration adopted a more hard-handed approach toward organized crime, with the SSCP going after organized crime's logistical networks and "violence generators", marking a departure from López Obrador's "hugs, not bullets" strategy. The SSPC's powers were expanded through legislation that facilitated closer collaboration with the Attorney General's Office, improved intelligence gathering across all levels of government, and allowed the SSPC to request information from any agency for criminal investigations. Her administration expanded the catalogue of crimes subject to mandatory pre-trial detention, including extortion, contraband, the use of false tax receipts, and activities related to the production, trafficking, and distribution of synthetic drugs such as fentanyl and its derivatives. She also continued the militarization of the National Guard, endorsing its continued integration into the Secretariat of National Defense, and launched a nationwide gun buyback program called Sí al Desarme, Sí a la Paz (lit. 'Yes to Disarmament, Yes to Peace') to reduce the number of weapons in circulation.
During the first months of Sheinbaum's administration, the homicide rate decreased by approximately 25%, with daily homicides falling from 86.9 at the start of her term to 64.5 as of May 2025. Other high-impact crimes, including kidnappings and bank robberies, also decreased during this period, although incidents of extortion and the number of disappearances have continued to rise, with about 8,000 new cases of disappeared persons reported during the same period. The administration reported significant increases in drug seizures; by June 2025, authorities had confiscated approximately 178 tonnes of narcotics, including 3 million fentanyl pills, from 1,150 clandestine laboratories. Efforts to combat fuel theft, known as huachicol, were also expanded, with multiple seizures conducted at sea and at illegal refineries across the country.
Despite reported gains, Sheinbaum's presidency has been marked by ongoing cartel violence. Across the country, political assassinations have continued at a high pace, leaving local officials particularly vulnerable. Clashes between rival factions of the Sinaloa Cartel contributed to a more than 400 percent increase in homicides in Sinaloa during the first half of 2025, prompting federal deployment of additional forces and arrests of mid-to-high ranking members of both factions. In March 2025, authorities discovered a training camp in Teuchitlán, Jalisco, allegedly used by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) as a forced recruitment center, which resulted in the arrest of a dozen people, including the municipality's mayor and alleged CJNG recruiter "El Comandante Lastra". Violence in Michoacán also intensified, defined by a turf war between the CJNG and Cárteles Unidos that has led to rampant extortion of the state's avocado and lime industries and a wave of assassinations targeting public and community leaders, including the murder of Uruapan's mayor, Carlos Manzo.
Sheinbaum continued elements of the energy nationalism advanced by Andrés Manuel López Obrador, aiming to strengthen the state-owned Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) and Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex). On 30 October 2024, she published a constitutional amendment that reclassified both entities as public institutions and established a mandate for the CFE to retain 54 percent of the national electricity generation market, with the remaining 46 percent allocated to private producers. Her administration also revised oil production targets, setting a goal of 1.8 million barrels per day—lower than the 2 million barrels pursued under López Obrador.
During her presidency, Sheinbaum made the expansion of Mexico’s passenger rail network a central element of her infrastructure agenda, promoting state-led development of intercity rail and enacting a constitutional amendment restoring federal authority over passenger rail operations. Her administration announced plans to construct approximately 3,000 kilometres of new lines, including the Mexico–Pachuca, Mexico–Nuevo Laredo, and Mexico–Nogales lines. She also oversaw the inauguration of the final sections of the Tren Maya in 2024, and in February 2026 she inaugurated the Santa Fe–Observatorio section of Tren El Insurgente, completing the Mexico City–Toluca interurban rail link begun in 2014.
In 2024, Sheinbaum announced a MX$33 billion investment to modernize six ports across Mexico: Ensenada, Baja California; Manzanillo, Colima; Lázaro Cárdenas, Michoacán; Acapulco, Guerrero; Veracruz, Veracruz; and Progreso, Yucatán.
Sheinbaum has continued her predecessor's practice of employing SEDENA's Military Engineers Corps. to build government infrastructure projects.
Sheinbaum continued the centralization of executive authority by dissolving seven autonomous agencies in late 2024: the Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT), the Federal Economic Competition Commission (COFECE), the National Institute for Transparency (INAI), the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE), the National Hydrocarbons Commission (CNH), the National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy (CONEVAL), and the National Institute for the Evaluation of Education (MejorEdu). Their functions were transferred to various cabinet ministries in what the administration described as an effort to streamline government operations and reduce public spending, though critics argued that the measure undermined transparency, regulatory independence, and checks on executive power.
On 1 April 2025, Sheinbaum published a constitutional reform to prohibit immediate reelection and bar close relatives of incumbents from running for the same office; although initially set for 2027, its implementation was postponed to 2030 following negotiations within the ruling coalition in the Senate. In February 2026, Sheinbaum proposed a broader electoral reform package to reduce the size of the Senate, modify proportional representation, cut party financing and electoral costs, eliminate the preliminary results program (PREP), and regulate the use of artificial intelligence in campaigns; however, the proposal failed to obtain a two-thirds majority after coalition allies—the Ecologist Green Party of Mexico (PVEM) and the Labor Party (PT)—withheld support amid concerns that the changes would weaken smaller parties, reduce their political influence, and concentrate power in the ruling party.
The Coordinadora Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (CNTE) organized repeated strikes, work stoppages, and protest encampments, pressuring the government to fulfill campaign promises regarding the repeal of the 2007 ISSSTE Law and the improvement of pension benefits. In the fall of 2025, widespread farmer strikes and highway blockades erupted across multiple states, with agricultural workers and truckers demanding higher guaranteed crop prices, improved highway security, and the rejection of a water reform bill promoted by the government; these actions frequently paralyzed transport routes leading into Mexico City. In November 2025, a series of demonstrations opposing the administration—sparked in part by the assassination of Uruapan mayor Carlos Manzo—took place in several cities; Sheinbaum characterized the protests as politically motivated and lacking organic support.
Sheinbaum expanded federal social programs including the introduction of the Women's Wellbeing Pension (Pensión Mujeres Bienestar), which provides bimonthly financial assistance to senior women aged 60 to 64, and the launch of the House to House Health (Salud Casa a Casa) program, which delivers home-based medical care to elderly people and individuals with disabilities. She also renamed the Benito Juárez Scholarship (Beca Benito Juárez) to the Rita Cetina Gutiérrez Universal Scholarship (Beca Universal Rita Cetina Gutiérrez), expanding it to provide bimonthly financial aid to all families with children enrolled in the public basic educational system. On 2 December 2024, Sheinbaum elevated several social programs to constitutional law. Her administration has continued to prioritize social spending in budget allocations, with social program spending equivalent to approximately 3% of gross domestic product, according to the 2026 budget.
Sheinbaum proposed a constitutional reform providing that annual minimum wage increases may not be set below the inflation rate; while the reform had not yet been enacted, wage policy has been implemented in line with this framework, with the daily minimum wage set at MX$278.80 and later increased to MX$315.04 for 2026, consistent with a stated objective of reaching the equivalent of 2.5 food baskets by 2030. The administration also formalized the Ley Silla, granting service-sector workers the right to seating and rest periods, enacted a reform regulating digital platform work that extends IMSS social security coverage and mandatory occupational accident insurance to active platform workers, and reached a tripartite agreement to gradually reduce the legal workweek from 48 to 40 hours beginning in 2027.
