U.S. report cites corruption concerns affecting Mexico investment
Original reporting: El Diario de Chihuahua
What happened
The U.S. State Department’s 2025 investment-climate report says alleged links between officials and organized crime, persistent impunity and rule-of-law concerns continue to weigh on confidence and investors in Mexico.
Reporting and context
Corruption practices in Mexico, including alleged links between politicians and drug cartels, continue to undermine public confidence and concern investors, the U.S. State Department said in its 2025 Investment Climate Statement on Mexico. El Diario de Chihuahua reported that the department’s assessment describes persistent challenges despite President Claudia Sheinbaum’s anti-corruption agenda.
According to the State Department report, common allegations involve officials who steal public funds, create shell companies to divert money or demand bribes in exchange for declining to prosecute criminal activity or awarding public contracts. The report says Sheinbaum’s initiatives focus on stronger oversight, reducing nepotism, modernizing public administration and improving transparency. It also cites concerns about alleged official links to organized crime, the weakening of autonomous transparency institutions such as Mexico’s former INAI, persistent impunity, cartel influence in local governments and investors’ concerns about the rule of law.
The report is the U.S. government’s principal assessment of American companies’ concerns about private-sector conditions worldwide, and its Mexico section runs 36 pages this year. The State Department noted that Mexico is party to anti-corruption conventions of the Organization of American States and the United Nations and said federal bribery offenses can carry prison terms of up to 14 years, depending on the amount involved.