Mexico's Defense and Navy Face Backlog of 178 Complaints

A semi‑annual report submitted to the Mexican Congress shows that the Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena) and the Secretariat of the Navy (Semar) received a total of 178 complaints about their personnel between 20 November 2025 and 19 May 2026. Sedena logged 94 complaints, of which only 14 were closed while 80 remain pending. Semar recorded 84 complaints, with 16 resolved and 68 still under investigation. Overall, more than 83 % of the complaints (148 cases) were unresolved at the end of the reporting period.

The National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) issued no recommendations against Sedena during the semester, whereas it made eight recommendations to Semar – four accepted, three rejected and one still under review. The report is part of the armed forces' accountability process for their role in public security and outlines how citizens can file complaints for alleged human‑rights violations or administrative misconduct.

Procedures for filing include contacting the CNDH directly or using internal control channels of each secretariat, such as Semar’s citizen‑reporting system and Sedena’s inspection and audit mechanisms.