Mexico’s ‘Batman’: The president’s favorite crime fighter, the cartels’ nemesis

MEXICO CITY — No floodlights illuminate the night sky when the citizens of Gotham, Mexico, need help. No hotline can summon this super cop from a secret redoubt.

But Mexico does indeed have its own “Batman”: Omar García Harfuch, the security czar of President Claudia Sheinbaum’s government.

He earned his nickname Batman during his days as Mexico City’s crime-busting police chief under then-Mayor Sheinbaum. Like the valiant Dark Knight, García Harfuch exudes an aura of vigilant protector who makes up for his lack of superpowers with more cerebral prowess (a mix of intelligence, determination, and courage).

In his current role (his official title: Minister of Security and Citizen Protection), García Harfuch is inevitably sent to hotspots from the northern border to the southern hinterland—places of assassinations, massacres, gang wars and other headline-grabbing incarnations of Mexican turmoil. The script never changes: He vows to trap the bad guys. Arrests follow.

Like his boss, Sheinbaum, the security chief disputes President Trump’s claims that Mexico is “run” by cartels, but does not deny the widespread influence of organized crime.

“Yes, there are definitely criminal groups, but [Mexico] “It is not controlled by the cartels,” García Harfuch, 43, recently told Mexican newspaper El Universal.

Joe Friday’s hard-hitting, fact-telling account of arrests, seizures, drug lab operations and other enforcement actions are signature moments in presidential news briefings. Always dressed in a suit and tie, García Harfuch exudes an air of competence, and his media-savvy advisers burnish his image as a relentless foe of the cartels.

When crime rates plummeted in Mexico City during his tenure as police chief, supporters began calling him Batman in English. Supporters even posted images online of a modified Batman action figure with “Harfuch” written on its chest.

While he emphasizes intelligence-gathering and investigative efforts, he does not shy away from praising the work of the police and citing traditional measures of success. It says that since Sheinbaum took office on Oct. 1, 2024, authorities have arrested more than 37,000 suspects for “high-impact crimes,” seized more than 300 tons of illegal drugs and dismantled more than 600 drug laboratories.

Such statistics were rarely circulated during the presidency of Sheinbaum’s predecessor and mentor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador. The former president has favored a widely criticized “hug over bullet” strategy that restricts offensive operations against cartels and instead addresses poverty and other socioeconomic factors that drive young people to join organized crime. Many Mexicans seem happy with this change.

García Harfuch was Mexico City’s police chief before becoming minister of Security and Protection of Citizens at the National Palace in September.

(Gerardo Vieyra/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

“Harfuch seems to me to be a well-intentioned, well-intentioned man, but unfortunately crime is so ingrained in Mexican society that it’s hard to get rid of him,” said Gregorio Flores, 57, a shop owner in Mexico City.

García Harfuch is arguably the most visible figure in the Mexican government other than the president, and polls show him to be one of the most popular figures and a possible candidate to replace Sheinbaum, who clearly trusts him because of their time together in the Mexico City government. Even Sheinbaum’s rivals acknowledge his effectiveness.

Taking a clear stance against organized crime is not risk-free in Mexico, where politicians, police, journalists and anyone who stands in the way of gangs can be targeted by gangsters. García Harfuch is well aware of the risks.

Experts are working at the scene after García Harfuch was injured in an assassination attempt in Mexico City on June 26, 2020. Two of his bodyguards and a woman bystander were killed.

(Pedro Pardo/AFP via Getty Images)

While serving as the capital’s police chief in 2020, García Harfuch survived three gunshot wounds in a brazen attack as his SUV drove down Mexico City’s elegant Paseo de la Reforma street. Two police guards and a female street vendor in the area were killed in the attack. The commando-style attack, which used scores of high-caliber weapons, stunned one of the capital’s most populous residential areas in a manner similar to the mob attack on Rodeo Drive.

García Harfuch, a former federal police officer who also holds a law degree, denounced the powerful Jalisco New Generation cartel from his hospital bed.

The ongoing threats against García Harfuch are frequently reported in the Mexican press; These include several mutilated bodies of thought to be cartel victims dumped outside Acapulco in May, as well as grisly scrawled death threats.

“García Harfuch is the cartels’ enemy No. 1,” said security analyst David Saucedo. “It became their headache. The cartels were used to making deals with them.” [the government]. … However, Harfuch gives the impression that he has no intention of reaching agreements with organized crime groups. “This is the problem of the cartels.”

Security is Mexicans’ biggest concern, and Garcia Harfuch gives the impression that the good guys are cracking down, although many are skeptical of the rapid decline in crime rates that Sheinbaum regularly praises.

The government says homicides have fallen by almost 40 percent since Sheinbaum took office last year; But critics say the statistic is inflated – it excludes, for example, increasing numbers of “disappeared” people, victims of crime sent to secret graves.

And some have suggested that Sheinbaum’s calls to the media-savvy security chief to save the day were more performative than substantive and possibly counterproductive.

“There is no such thing as Batman,” columnist Viri Ríos recently wrote in Mexico’s Milenio newspaper. “The Batman myth is dangerous, especially for Harfuch. Making him a legend puts the onus on him to calm the country. But as we all know, Omar cannot defeat organized crime alone.”

In fact, García Harfuch has relatively few forces under his direct command. Corruption remains rife in Mexico among state and municipal police, prosecutors, and judges, often making them unreliable partners. García Harfuch is thus dependent on other agencies, especially the national guard, a 200,000-strong force under military command.

Sheinbaum speaks as García Harfuch looks on during his daily press conference in November. A fixture of briefings.

(Carl de Souza / AFP via Getty Images)

García Harfuch regularly praises his relationship with the armed forces, despite rumors of resentment against his broad powers and closeness to Sheinbaum. Mexico’s first female president also serves as chief military commander.

García Harfuch is said to have the trust of US law enforcement, although the Trump administration’s ever-increasing demands for Mexican territory and threats of unilateral attacks put him in a difficult position. Just last week, Trump declared that he was “dissatisfied” with anti-narcotics efforts in Mexico.

“Americans trust García Harfuch, but they always want more; more arrests, more extraditions, more decommissioning of drug labs,” security analyst Saucedo said.

For security reasons, authorities are providing few details about García Harfuch’s personal life beyond saying he is divorced and a father.

García Harfuch comes from a number of prominent government officials; their careers partly reflect Mexico’s history of repressive, authoritarian government.

His grandfather, General Marcelino García Barragán, was defense minister during the infamous massacre of student protesters in Mexico City’s Tlatelolco district in 1968; and his father, Javier García Paniagua, was a politician who held various positions, including chief of a now-defunct federal police agency that came under attack for human rights violations.

Mexico’s top cop may not wear capes and masks, but his background has a touch of showbiz: His mother, María Sorté, is one of Mexico’s best-known actors and often plays characters in telenovelas or soap operas. Few people know her real name, María Harfuch Hidalgo, whose paternal surname reflects her Lebanese ancestry.

“Harfuch seemed to me to be a good man, with good intentions,” said Carmen Zamora, 46, a restaurant owner in Mexico City. “But it needs more time. You can’t solve the violence we’ve seen in Mexico for so long in one year.”

Carlos Monjarraz, 34, a capital car dealer, is not convinced.

“This whole Batman thing is just a joke on Mexicans when everything else is the same (murders, drug trafficking, insecurity),” Monjarraz said. “We don’t need a Batman to save us. We need the authorities to lock up the real criminals, the crooked politicians who continue to protect each other.”

Special correspondent Cecilia Sánchez Vidal contributed to this report.