Politics: Between propaganda and reality — what Sheinbaum's Second State of the Nation Address said, and what it left unsaid
Mexico's tradition of presidentialism, once expressed through the ritual of the president's State of the Nation Address to Congress, has effectively been abandoned since 2006 rather than reformed into a genuine mechanism of accountability; Sheinbaum, like her predecessors, delivered her Second State of the Nation Address as a political speech at the National Palace rather than before the legislature. The speech framed her administration's record around three founding claims of the Fourth Transformation — a reordering of political and economic power, a government defined by austerity and honesty, and a welfare state benefiting the majority — supported by data on minimum wage growth, falling labor poverty, and expanding social programs reaching nearly 43 million beneficiaries.
Much of this data, however, was presented selectively or without the context needed to assess its real significance, serving more a propagandistic and electoral purpose than an evaluative one. On the economy, figures on investment, GDP growth, employment, and public revenue were cited without addressing deeper structural weaknesses such as low investment levels, growing informality, or uncertainty surrounding trade relations with the United States. Infrastructure and energy announcements were listed without timelines, funding sources, or measures of progress, limiting any real assessment of their impact. On security, a headline claim of a 51% drop in homicides proved questionable once measured against the government's own broader crime statistics, and the escalating crisis of disappeared persons went unmentioned altogether.
The relationship with the United States was addressed only in general terms, emphasizing sovereignty and migrant welfare while avoiding the harder question of U.S. pressure linked to organized crime. Beneath a generally solid approval rating and continued support for social programs, public opinion is notably critical of the government's handling of security, corruption, and organized crime — precisely the unresolved issues, compounded by the entanglement of political and criminal power within Morena, that pose the greatest risk to Sheinbaum's strategy heading into the 2027 election.
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