Autocratization by dual aggrandizement: the civil–military coalition driving Mexico’s democratic backsliding

An unprecedented civil–military coalition is governing Mexico. This article examines the legacy of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018–2024), a charismatic populist who successfully freed the Presidency of Mexico from checks and balances and expanded the military to tasks well beyond national defence. Both processes have shaped Mexico’s ongoing episode of autocratization. Now under President Claudia Sheinbaum (2024–2030), executive power has partially decompressed, yet the top brass has attained a legal role in “governability” through the Cabinet of Security, a rising organ reflecting the new civil–military relations in Mexico. As of 2026, Mexico’s militarization turned from a functional instrument of populist executive power into an independent driver of democratic backsliding. The Mexican case confirms the need to keep an eye on military aggrandizement as a mode of autocratization.