Police officers in Mexico must pass an examen de control de confianza, a trust control exam. In May 2026, El Imparcial wrote that it “es obligatorio para el ingreso y permanencia de policías en el País” (is mandatory for police officers to join and to remain in the force in the country). It includes toxicological, psychological, polygraph and medical tests, and a review of the officer’s social environment.
In this exam, confianza is measured by tests, among them a polygraph.
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.
A los amigos, justicia y gracia. “For friends, justice and grace.”
A los enemigos, la ley a secas. “For enemies, the law and nothing more.”
Some Mexican columnists attribute the phrase to Benito Juárez. In Forbes México, one columnist calls it “probablemente apócrifo” (probably apocryphal). No source found names its real author.
For the election of judges by popular vote, Article 96 of the Constitution asks candidates for the Supreme Court for an essay and for five letters of reference. They must send “cinco cartas de referencia de sus vecinos, colegas o personas que respalden su idoneidad para desempeñar el cargo” (five letters of reference from their neighbors, colleagues or persons who vouch for their suitability for the office). The call for candidates repeated the requirement.
In November 2024, Magistrate Maribel Méndez de Lara, of the evaluation committee of the Legislative Branch, said that the committees would check the letters by telephone with the people who had signed them.
After the education reform of 2013, under President Enrique Peña Nieto, the General Law of the Professional Teaching Service set public competitions, concursos de oposición, as the way into a teaching post. In 2019, Expansión explained what came before. The old system “abrió la puerta para la venta y a las plazas vitalicias, que eran heredadas” (opened the door to the sale of posts and to posts for life, which were inherited).
“Como no había un concurso, no se podía garantizar que quien llegara fuera por méritos y capacidades” (Since there was no competition, there was no guarantee that whoever arrived did so by merit and ability). Since 2019, a unit of the Ministry of Public Education, USICAMM, has assigned teaching posts. On May 31, 2026, President Claudia Sheinbaum confirmed that it would disappear.
In August 2019, Mexico’s Labor Secretary, Luisa María Alcalde Luján, spoke at the ExpoEmpleo OCC job fair. According to Excélsior, she said that 56 percent of employed people in Mexico had found their job through personal contacts, friends or relatives. Only 25 percent of job seekers used private agencies or job boards.
Confianza means trust. It also means familiarity between people.
De confianza, a person one can rely on, or a close and intimate one.
En confianza, in private, between people who trust each other.
Agarrar confianza, to grow at ease with someone over time.
Pásale, con confianza, “come in, make yourself at home,” said to a guest.
Tomarse confianzas, to take liberties, to act with more familiarity than the relationship allows.
In 2021, ANPEC, the national association of small retailers, surveyed about 1,200 neighborhood grocery stores. According to the newspaper Por Esto!, 78 percent of the shopkeepers said that customers asked them for fiado, goods on credit. The share of customers asking for credit had roughly doubled, from about two in ten in early 2020 to about four in ten in the first half of 2021.
Mexico’s Federal Labor Law has a legal category called trabajadores de confianza, “employees of trust.” Article 9 says the category depends on the nature of the work: direction, inspection, supervision and control of a general nature, and work related to the employer’s own personal affairs within the company.
Article 185 lets the employer end the employment of such a worker “if there is a reasonable motive for loss of trust,” even when it does not match the causes for dismissal listed in Article 47.
In Mexico, a person who tiene palanca, “has a lever,” has a connection who can open a door. In a 2021 article, the researchers Arellano-Gault and Trejo Alonso describe the palanca as a mechanism for exchanging favors among acquaintances and “acquaintances of acquaintances.” It forms a network “that rests on relationships of trust.”
One participant in their focus groups said: “En México, la vida se compone de una serie de palancas” (In Mexico, life is made up of a series of levers).