Since President Claudia Sheinbaum took office, the Mexican government has been assigning security details to public officials at a significantly higher rate than its two most recent predecessors.
Citing government information it received via a freedom of information request, the newspaper El Sol de México reported on Monday that bodyguards were assigned to 103 officials between Oct. 1, 2024 — the date Sheinbaum was sworn in — and Jan. 7, 2026.
In other words, an average of almost seven officials per month were assigned personal security details in the period of just over 15 months between Oct. 1, 2024, and Jan. 7, 2026.
The federal government’s assignment of bodyguards generally occurs after an official has submitted a request for protection and a risk analysis has been carried out.
During the almost six years Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) was president (2018-24), the federal government assigned bodyguards to 311 public officials and four people from the private sector, according to El Sol de México.
Thus, security details were assigned to an average of 4.5 people per month in the 70 months (five years and 10 months) López Obrador was in office.
So far during Sheinbaum’s administration, the average monthly number of assignments of security details to officials has been around 50% higher than under AMLO.
The increase in the provision of bodyguards to officials is even larger when the current government is compared to the 2012-18 administration led by former president Enrique Peña Nieto.
During Peña Nieto’s entire six-year term, bodyguards were assigned to 168 public officials and three people from the private sector. Thus, security details were assigned to an average of 2.37 people per month. The average rate during the current government’s first 15 months in office is over 180% higher.
Politicians in Mexico have long faced risks to their personal safety, as evidenced by the assassinations of people such as presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio in 1994, former governor of Jalisco Aristóteles Sandoval in 2020, and mayor of Uruapan Carlos Manzo last November, who had a security detail made up of (allegedly corrupt) municipal police and National Guard members when he was shot.
However, the data obtained by El Sol de México indicates that the current government is receiving requests for protection at a much higher rate than during the previous two federal administrations. The increase in requests would appear to be linked to an increase in credible threats to officials’ lives and/or a growing desire for politicians to take extra precautions to ensure their own safety. Thirty-three of the 103 assignments of bodyguards to officials during the current government occurred after the murder of Manzo.
El Sol de México said that federal authorities didn’t provide the names or positions of the people who have been assigned bodyguards during the current government, citing a legal requirement for confidentiality. But data on killings of politicians in recent years shows that current and aspiring municipal officials, including mayors, are most at risk and thus more likely to request federal protection.
Sheinbaum, like AMLO, asserts that she doesn’t have a formal personal security detail, but rather is protected by a group of presidential aides that belong to a team called the Ayudantía. Her security arrangements were in the spotlight late last year after she was inappropriately touched by a man while walking in the historic center of Mexico City.
Sheinbaum’s government has provided security services worth more than 450 million pesos
Citing the information it received from federal security authorities, El Sol de México reported that the personal security services provided to the 103 officials between October 2024 and January 2026, including the provision of vehicles, generated 450.94 million pesos (US $26.2 million) in income for the federal government.
The rates for the provision of security by the Federal Protection Service are set annually.
The fees are paid by the entity for which the protected official works — a municipal or state government, for example.
The current government’s income from the provision of security services in a period of just over 15 months is more than double the earnings of the previous government during its entire term, according to the information El Sol de México received.
The federal government’s income from the provision of security services during Peña Nieto’s presidency exceeded 1.3 billion pesos.
With reports from El Sol de México
