Saying that Mexico and Mexicans live in helplessness is today much more than a rhetorical figure or a gimmicky resource for criticism. It seems to me that the first fortnight of this October has marked a turning point in the country’s social and institutional vulnerability, determined by the simultaneity of three structural crises: a large-scale hydrometeorological disaster, uncontained political criminal violence, and a legislative modification that restricts constitutional guarantees.
This triple emergency has created a state of citizen helplessness.
The climate crisis, although caused by natural phenomena, has revealed the insufficiency of infrastructure and serious omissions in government forecasting. Low pressure systems and the influence of tropical remnants have generated torrential rains that in the last week caused, in addition to incalculable material damage and the loss of their assets to thousands of families, 70 people dead and 72 missing, confirmed by federal authorities until October 16. After the “do not say affected municipalities” ordered by the President to the Secretary of Health, it was learned that there were 111 municipalities, with more than 100 thousand homes affected (preliminary figure), according to the presidential sources themselves.
And there is no longer a Natural Disaster Fund Trust (FONDEN), because AMLO abolished it in 2021. Its remaining funds (around 25 billion pesos) were transferred to the Treasury of the Federation (TESOFE), where… they were diluted.
The impact of the devastation of the previous weekend was concentrated geographically, with Veracruz, Hidalgo, Puebla, Querétaro and San Luis Potosí as the hardest hit entities, where thousands of homes have been damaged and cuts have been documented in the federal and state highway network. The magnitude of the emergency demanded the activation of the DN-III-E Plan and the massive intervention of the Armed Forces.
The state of Guerrero has also figured prominently – again – on the list of affected entities. In the municipality of Zihuatanejo, a maximum rainfall of 151 millimeters was recorded, which quickly saturated the drainage system and caused flooding in urban and coastal areas.
The state authority was forced to decree the suspension of classes in various regions, a preventive measure that highlights the risk of landslides and floods, and to maintain the closure of ports due to the increase in waves. The material damage exposes the lack of investment in mitigation and prevention works, causing each rainy season to translate into a predictable humanitarian crisis.
The response to the disaster was overshadowed by the interference of organized crime. Criminal organizations have been documented, including with photographs, distributing aid and donations to victims in several affected areas. This act, although it is in the form of social assistance, constitutes a direct affront to the State and a demonstration of effective territorial control, forcing the population to recognize a parallel authority. The co-option of assistance is a symptom of institutional fragility and the governance vacuum that crime takes advantage of to consolidate its social base. Say.
In parallel with the climate emergency, the security crisis maintained an escalation of political violence that underlines the fragility of the social pact. The country continues to register a high rate of intentional homicides, more than fifty each day, on average. The forcefulness of this crisis was manifested with the execution of Gabriela Mejía, former mayor (2021-2024) and current councilor of the municipality of Cuauhtémoc, Colima. The politician, a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), was shot to death on Tuesday, October 14, 2025 in a direct attack, increasing the number of officials and applicants for public office who are victims of violence.
Reports from civil organizations such as Integralia Consultores and Data Cívica indicate that, in the year 2025, more than 136 murders of political figures or candidates for elected positions have been documented. This pattern of high-profile executions in entities like Colima, which persists without an effective containment strategy, demonstrates the capacity of organized crime to influence and destabilize public life.
Added to all of the above is our helplessness in the legal field, as a result of a legal aberration that, in the opinion of specialists, compromises procedural guarantees. The Chamber of Deputies approved, in the early hours of this Wednesday, October 15, the controversial reform to the Amparo Law promoted by the Presidency of the Republic. This modification, which has already been approved by the Senate, has as its main objective the restriction of the provisional and definitive suspension with “general effects” when the unconstitutionality of a norm is challenged.
The restriction implies that the legal defense of a citizen against a law that he considers violates the Constitution will be limited to the individual case, preventing the judicial resolution from benefiting the entire population affected by the same norm. The reform directly affects controversies of high public sensitivity, including aspects of tax collection, public debt and the freezing of accounts by the Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF).
The urgency and forcefulness of this legislative action, in a context of crisis, have been criticized not only by legislators and opposition leaders, but also by recognized jurists and academics, considering that the essential function of the Amparo Trial as a mechanism for constitutionality control and collective defense is violated.
This limitation of legal recourse represents a new retreat from the rule of law, restricting the ability of citizens to stop acts of authority that are considered arbitrary or unconstitutional.
The sum of a humanitarian catastrophe with failures of foresight, impunity in high-profile executions that destabilize the political order, and a legal reform that limits the tools of citizen defense, configures a scenario of maximum social vulnerability.
The Mexican citizen, in October 2025, finds himself at the intersection of a multidimensional crisis that requires urgent and substantive corrective actions in terms of investment in infrastructure, security and respect for institutional legal balances. Literally, he lives helplessly. Okay.
OF THE FREE-TA
PALENQUE ROAD. Also in terms of social communication, the President already punctually follows the line drawn by the Tabasco boss. Pa’pronto dismissed the criticism from the media, intellectuals and specialists of the reform of the Amparo Law, disqualifying them as being a “campaign of slander” and a “political attack.” Adopting the rhetoric of her predecessor, instead of denying it with true and verifiable data, the president stated that opposition to the law comes from “those with more economic resources” and “large tax debtors” who seek to “abuse the protection” to delay justice, thus blurring the technical and legal concerns as a simple defense of privileges. More of the same, then.
@fopinchetti