Mexico, Hierarchy - understand-culture

Insubordination

Article 283 of Mexico’s Code of Military Justice states: “Comete el delito de insubordinación el militar que con palabras, ademanes, señas, gestos o de cualquier otra manera, falte al respeto o sujeción debidos a un superior” (A soldier commits the crime of insubordination who, with words, gestures, signs or in any other way, fails in the respect or submission owed to a superior).

Article 285 sets the penalties for insubordination in service. The first is one year and six months in prison “si se hiciere por medio de palabras o ademanes” (if it is done by words or gestures).

Almost Like a Family

In 1918, the Cervecería Cuauhtémoc of Monterrey founded a cooperative for its workers. In 2011, Expansión described it: the company “creó una sociedad cooperativa, que se encargaría de manejar los servicios para los empleados y sus parientes, casi como si se tratara de los miembros de una familia” (created a cooperative that would manage services for the employees and their relatives, almost as if they were members of a family).

Benevolence and Control

In 2003, P. G. Martínez published “Paternalism as a positive form of leader-subordinate exchange: Evidence from México” in the journal Management Research. The study draws on field data from organizations in Mexico and from U.S. organizations owned by Mexican immigrants. The leaders it describes look after their employees’ welfare at work and in their personal lives.

Martínez concludes that “paternalism combines paternalists’ benevolent acts with their subtle control over subordinates’ flexibility.”

A Single Individual

Article 80 of the Mexican Constitution reads: “Se deposita el ejercicio del Supremo Poder Ejecutivo de la Unión en un solo individuo, que se denominará ‘Presidente de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos'” (The exercise of the Supreme Executive Power of the Union is vested in a single individual, who shall be called “President of the United Mexican States”). The article has kept its original wording since the Constitution was published in February 1917.

Powers Beyond the Constitution

In 1978, the jurist Jorge Carpizo published El presidencialismo mexicano (Mexican Presidentialism) with Siglo XXI. Among the causes of the president’s dominance, he listed “las amplias facultades constitucionales y extraconstitucionales, como son la facultad de designar a su sucesor y a los gobernadores de las entidades federativas” (the broad constitutional and extraconstitutional powers, such as the power to designate his successor and the governors of the states).

In a text published by the Law Faculty of UNAM, Serrano Migallón writes that legal doctrine calls some of the president’s attributions “facultades metaconstitucionales” (metaconstitutional powers). A footnote there refers readers to Carpizo’s book.

Settling with the Superior

The Interior Regulation of Mexico’s Ministry of the Interior, in its 2019 version, lists the general powers of its officials. For the heads of the undersecretariats, the first one is “Acordar con la persona Titular de la Secretaría los asuntos de su competencia” (to settle with the head of the Ministry the matters within their competence).

For the heads of the administrative units listed in section B of Article 2, Article 10 begins in the same way: “Acordar con su superior jerárquico la resolución de los asuntos a su cargo” (to settle with their hierarchical superior the resolution of the matters in their charge).

The Democratic Current

A “Documento de trabajo número uno” (Working Paper Number One), dated October 1, 1986, was signed by a group of PRI members, among them Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas and Porfirio Muñoz Ledo. The group, known as the Corriente Democrática, asked the party to open the selection of its candidates to its base. It questioned the dedazo, the method by which the candidate for president was designated.

On March 4, 1987, at the party’s national assembly, PRI president Jorge de la Vega Domínguez said: “En el PRI no tendrán cabida ni la quinta columna ni los caballos de Troya” (In the PRI there will be no room for a fifth column or for Trojan horses). In October 1987, Cárdenas joined another party, the PARM, as its presidential candidate.

The objection was made in a signed document, inside the party. By the end of 1987, Cárdenas and Muñoz Ledo had both left the PRI.

Fear of Reprisals

In 2025, the Consejo Ciudadano de Seguridad Pública and the union group SUCOMM carried out 1,768 interviews with workers in about 33 maquiladoras in Tijuana, Mexicali and Ensenada. According to the weekly ZETA, 68.1 percent had experienced some kind of workplace violence. “El 36.1% de los colaboradores no reportó estas situaciones por temor a represalias” (36.1 percent of the workers did not report these situations for fear of reprisals).

The article does not make clear whether this share refers to all workers interviewed or only to those who experienced violence.

Without a Board

In 2016, the consulting firm KPMG surveyed more than 200 directors and senior executives of family businesses in Mexico. Only 45 percent of the respondents had a governing body such as a board of directors. Only 30 percent of the boards included independent members in their meetings. KPMG described “decisiones más o menos unilaterales tomadas por los dueños y directores” (more or less unilateral decisions taken by the owners and directors).

Twenty-One Coaches

In April 2014, Jorge Vergara, the owner of the football club Chivas of Guadalajara, announced the dismissal of its coach, Ricardo La Volpe, himself. In October 2014, El Financiero counted that in his twelve years as owner, Vergara had hired 21 coaches. It called them “la larga lista de entrenadores empleados y despedidos por Vergara” (the long list of coaches hired and fired by Vergara).

In June 2019, ESPN reported that Vergara had given his son Amaury full authority over the club’s decisions, including changes of coach. When Amaury dismissed a coach, ESPN wrote that he continued “una tradición que su padre” had made popular “con el conjunto rojiblanco” (a tradition that his father had made popular with the red-and-white team).