In July 2024, Expansión reported that Claudia Sheinbaum would bring eight people from her time as head of government of Mexico City into her federal cabinet.
Among them were Rosa Icela Rodríguez, her first secretary of government in the capital, and Omar García Harfuch, whom she named the city’s security secretary in 2019. Ernestina Godoy had led the city’s prosecutor’s office. Jesús Esteva had run its public works ministry since the start of her administration in December 2018.
In 2022, the polling firm Ipsos asked adults in 30 countries whether most people can be trusted. In Mexico, 23 percent said yes.
INEGI’s National Survey of Civic Culture of 2020 measured trust on a scale from zero to ten, “como en la escuela” (as in school). It asked about three groups separately: “la mayoría de las personas” (most people), “la mayoría de las personas que conoce personalmente” (most of the people one knows personally) and the people who live in one’s neighborhood.
In February 2022, El Financiero reported that family businesses make up 90 percent of the business units in Mexico. The newspaper attributed the figure to INEGI data and to specialists, without citing a table.
At the UNAM, one way to obtain a professional title is a professional exam before a jury. The rules of the Faculty of Engineering call for juries of three examiners and two alternates. The protocol of the College of Library Science states that the exam will not take place under any circumstances unless all three members of the jury are present.
At the end comes the oath. The candidate raises the right hand and answers Sí protesto, “I do so swear.”
In Mexico, a university of poor quality is called a universidad patito, a “duckling university.” In a 2005 study, the UNAM researcher Rodríguez Gómez described such schools as establishments of “sospechosa o francamente mala calidad académica” (suspect or frankly bad academic quality).
In December 2025, Vanguardia reported 62 complaints in the state of Coahuila against about 11 schools, mainly for offering programs without official validity.
In 2017, an Expansión article on Carlos Slim included the sentence “El ingeniero es propietario de la gigante de telecomunicaciones América Móvil” (The engineer is the owner of the telecommunications giant América Móvil). Slim graduated as a civil engineer from the Faculty of Engineering of the UNAM.
A medical prescription in Mexico must show the number of the doctor’s cédula profesional, the professional license. Guidelines published in the official gazette in October 2025 list among the required data the “Número de Cédula Profesional o autorización provisional para ejercer como pasante” (number of the professional license, or provisional authorization to practice as an intern).
Under the General Health Law, a doctor who performs specialized surgery must hold a “Cédula de especialista legalmente expedida” (specialist’s license legally issued) and a current specialist’s certificate.
Miguel de la Madrid earned a master’s degree in public administration at Harvard on a scholarship from the Bank of Mexico. Carlos Salinas de Gortari took two master’s degrees and a doctorate at Harvard. Ernesto Zedillo completed a doctorate in economics at Yale in 1981. All three became president of Mexico.
The political group around them is known colloquially as the tecnócratas, the technocrats.
A new Chamber of Deputies is installed by the Mesa de Decanos, the Table of Deans. Under Article 15 of the Organic Law of the Congress, its members are the deputies-elect “que hayan desempeñado con mayor antigüedad la responsabilidad de legislador federal” (who have served longest as federal legislators).
If two have equal seniority, the one who has belonged to more legislatures comes first. If they are still tied, the older one does. The Table swears in the new legislators and presides over the session that elects the chamber’s first leadership.
Article 11 of the Law of Discipline of the Mexican Army, Air Force and National Guard reads: “El militar se abstendrá de murmurar con motivo de las disposiciones superiores o de las obligaciones” (A soldier shall refrain from grumbling about the orders of superiors or about duties). Article 3 names the bases of military discipline: “la obediencia, y un alto concepto del honor” (obedience and a high concept of honor).
Article 14 sets a limit. It forbids a soldier to give orders whose execution would be a crime.