With the shift in security strategy, moving away from the 'hugs, not bullets' approach of the Andrés Manuel López Obrador administration, there has been an increase in complaints against Mexican Army soldiers for alleged human rights violations.
A report from the Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena), updated as of March 15 of this year, reveals that in 2025 there were 428 complaints, the highest number against the military for human rights violations during the 'Fourth Transformation' (4T) era. During the López Obrador sexenium, the annual average of complaints for alleged human rights violations by Mexican Army elements was 358.
In 2019 there were 421 complaints; in 2020 there were 276; in 2021, 383 were registered; in 2022, 388 were received; in 2023, the figure dropped to 367, and in 2024 it saw a new low at 314 complaints. In contrast, in 2025, the first full year of the current administration, 428 complaints were received. This figure, compared to 2019, is 1.6 percent higher; and compared to 2024, it is 36 percent higher.
According to the official figure, during the current administration, 613 complaints have been received, of which 109 were in the October-December 2024 period; 428 in 2025 and 76 so far in 2026. Of the total complaints in the current administration, 359 (58.5%) are fully concluded and 254 (41.5%) are still in process.
Furthermore, this total number of complaints has led to 12 recommendations from the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), two in the October-December 2024 period; eight in all of 2025 and two so far in 2026. In contrast, in 2019, the first year of the López Obrador government, there were four recommendations and in 2024 there were three.
One recommendation against the Army in the current administration is 201VG/2025 for serious violations against a family attacked by soldiers from the 42nd Infantry Battalion. In that event, which occurred on May 6, 2025, in the municipality of Badiraguato, Sinaloa, two girls (Alexa and Leydi, aged 7 and 11) died, and four more people were injured. All were traveling in an SUV when soldiers, by mistake, fired 119 times. This event stands out, according to the CNDH, because members of that same family had died at the hands of soldiers in a similar event that occurred on March 26, 2008, in the community of Santiago de los Caballeros, in Badiraguato, facts that led to recommendation 36/2008.
