ABSTRACT
This chapter complements the region-wide survey of prosecutors’ offices by examining in greater depth the performance of Mexico's Fiscalía General de la República (FGR) following the 2014 constitutional reform – and 2018 secondary law – that enhanced its autonomy and was intended to address the endemic and acute rule of law failings associated with the preceding prosecutorial system. Although these revisions are fairly recent, enough time has elapsed to permit a preliminary evaluation, and the evidence presented here indicates little or no improvement to these grave deficiencies. The chapter describes the new national system and its legal and budgetary contours, including the main divisions (fiscalías especializadas). It also documents the complexities arising from Mexico's federal structure – each of the 32 states has its own Fiscalía, and most cases arise at the lower level. Demarcation disputes help explain the poor results obtained so far, but the dysfunctions of the system are not merely organizational. There has long been evident politicization of sensitive major prosecutions, as well as neglect of inconvenient lesser cases, and although the new Fiscal General has job security and a nine-year term, the FGR has failed to break with past practices. Consequent public distrust in the system hampers both its developmental and its democratic effectiveness.
