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

MEXICO CITY — No spotlights illuminate the night sky when the residents of Mexico's Gotham need help. No hotline will call this super-cop from a hidden redoubt.

But Mexico does have its own Batman: Omar García Harfuch, head of security in the government of President Claudia Sheinbaum.

He earned the nickname Batman while serving as Mexico City's crime-fighting police chief under then-Mayor Sheinbaum. Like the stoic Dark Knight, García Harfuch exudes the vibe of a vigilant protector who makes up for what he lacks in superpowers with more brainpower—a mixture of intelligence, determination, and courage.

In his current post (official title: Minister of Security and Citizen Protection), García Harfuch inevitably finds himself in hot spots from the northern border to the southern interior – scenes of murders, massacres, gang wars and other vivid embodiments of Mexican chaos. The script never changes: he vows to catch the bad guys. Arrests follow.

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

“Yes, there is definitely a presence of criminal gangs, but [Mexico] not controlled by cartels,” Garcia Harfuch, 43, recently told Mexican daily El Universal.

Joe Friday's hard-hitting, fact-based accounts of arrests, seizures, drug lab busts and other enforcement actions are a hallmark of presidential briefings. García Harfuch, always dressed in a suit and tie, exudes an aura of competence, and his media-savvy advisers have burnished his image as an implacable enemy of the cartels.

Supporters began calling him Batman in English when Mexico City's crime rate plummeted during his tenure as police chief. Supporters even circulated images online of a modified Batman action figure with “Harfuh” written on the chest.

While emphasizing the importance of intelligence gathering and thorough investigations, he is not shy about praising police work and citing traditional measures of success. Since Sheinbaum took office on Oct. 1, 2024, authorities have arrested more than 37,000 suspects in “serious crimes,” seized more than 300 tons of illegal drugs and dismantled more than 600 drug laboratories, he said.

Statistics like these were rarely discussed during the presidency of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Sheinbaum's predecessor and mentor. The ex-president advocated a widely criticized “hugs, not bullets” strategy – scaling back offensive operations against the cartels and instead addressing poverty and other socioeconomic factors that drive young people to join organized crime. Many Mexicans seem happy with the shift.

“I think Harfuch is a good man with good intentions, but unfortunately crime is so ingrained in Mexican society that it is difficult to get rid of it,” said Gregorio Flores, 57, a store owner in Mexico City.

García Harfuch is probably the most prominent figure in the Mexican government after the president, and polls show him among the most popular and a possible candidate to succeed Sheinbaum, who has clearly trusted him since they served together in the Mexico City government. Even Sheinbaum's rivals acknowledge his effectiveness.

Taking a strong stand against organized crime is hardly safe in Mexico, where politicianspolicemen, journalists and anyone else who gets in the way of the crowd may find themselves targeted by gangsters. García Harfuch is well aware of how high the stakes are.

In 2020, as Metropolitan Police Chief, García Harfuch survived three gunshot wounds in a brazen attack as his SUV drove along Mexico City's elegant Paseo de la Reforma. The attack killed two police bodyguards and a street vendor who was a witness. A commando-style strike using multiple high-calibre weapons stunned one of the capital's most exclusive residential areas, somewhat like the mob attack on Rodeo Drive.

From his hospital bed, García Harfuch, a former federal police officer with a legal background, blamed the powerful Jalisco New Generation cartel.

The Mexican press frequently reports ongoing threats against García Harfuch, including chilling death threats found in May next to several mutilated bodies, believed to be cartel victims, dumped near Acapulco.

“Garcia Harfuch is the cartels' No. 1 enemy,” said David Saucedo, a security analyst. “He became a headache for them. Cartels are used to making deals with [the government]. … But Kharfukh gets the impression that he is not in the mood to negotiate with the organized crime group. And that’s a problem for the cartels.”

Safety The main problem of Mexicansand Garcia Harfuch makes it seem like the good guys are getting tough, even if many doubt the dramatic drop in crime that Sheinbaum regularly touts.

The murder rate has fallen nearly 40% since Sheinbaum took office last year, the government says, although critics say the statistic is inflated – it does not take into account, for example, the growing number of “missing” people, suspected victims of crimes sent to secret graves.

Some have suggested that Sheinbaum's emergency calls to her media-savvy security chief are more revealing than substantive, and likely counterproductive.

“There is no Batman,” columnist Viri Rios recently wrote in the Mexican newspaper Milenio. “The Batman myth is dangerous, especially for Harfuch. Creating his myth makes him responsible for pacifying the country. But, as we all know, Omar cannot defeat organized crime alone.”

In reality, García Harfuch has relatively few forces under his direct command. In Mexico, corruption remains widespread 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.

Garcia Harfuch regularly touts his relationship with the military, despite rumors of dissatisfaction with his broad powers and closeness to Sheinbaum. Mexico's first female president is also commander-in-chief of the armed forces.

García Harfuch is said to have the confidence of US law enforcement despite ever-increasing demands and threats from the Trump administration one-sided strikes in Mexico put him in a difficult position. Just last week, Trump said he was “not happy” with anti-drug efforts in Mexico.

“The Americans trust García Harfuch, but they are always asking for more – more arrests, more extraditions, more dismantling of drug labs,” said Saucedo, the security analyst.

For security reasons, officials have not provided details about Garcia Harfuch's personal life, other than that he is divorced and a father.

García Harfuch comes from a line of prominent government officials whose careers partly reflect Mexico's past under a repressive, authoritarian government.

His grandfather, General Marcelino García Barragán, was Minister of Defense during the infamous war. 1968 massacre student protests in the Tlatelolco neighborhood of Mexico City; and his father, Javier García Paniagua, was a politician who held various positions, including as head of a now-disbanded federal police agency under attack for human rights abuses.

Mexico's top cop may not wear a cape and mask, but his past has a showbiz flavor: His mother, Maria Sorte, is one of Mexico's best-known actors, often portraying characters in telenovelas and soap operas. Few people know her real name, Maria Harfuch Hidalgo, whose paternal surname reflects her Lebanese heritage.

“Harfouch seems like a good person with good intentions,” said Carmen Zamora, 46, a restaurant owner in Mexico City. “But he needs more time. It is impossible to solve in one year the problem of violence that we have seen in Mexico for so long.”

Carlos Monjarraz, 34, a car salesman in the capital, is not convinced.

“This whole Batman thing is just a joke on the Mexicans, even though everything is the same – the same murders, drug trafficking, insecurity,” Monjarraz said. “We don't need Batman to save us. We need the authorities to jail the real criminals – the crooked politicians who continue to protect each other.”

Special correspondent Cecilia Sanchez Vidal contributed to this report.