DirectDemocracyS

Global Political Organization · Real Direct Democracy

COMPREHENSIVE PROGRAM

FOR THE TRANSFORMATION OF MEXICO

Political · Economic · Financial · Social · Environmental

Critical analysis of reality · Concrete and verifiable solutions

Based on logic, common sense, study, reality, truth, coherence, and mutual respect

2025 Edition — Strategic Reference Document

public.directdemocracys.org

PRELIMINARY STATEMENT: OUR POSITION

DirectDemocracyS (DDS) is not a traditional political party. It does not seek power to wield it for the benefit of an elite. It does not make empty promises. It does not use the language of demagoguery or hollow rhetoric. We are a pioneering, global political organization, radical in the best sense of the word: we get to the root of the problems, without beating around the bush or making concessions to established interests.

This document analyzes Mexico with complete honesty. It names what is wrong, identifies the root causes, and proposes concrete, viable, measurable solutions with defined timelines. We don't offer utopian ideals: we offer programs that work, backed by evidence, logic, and mutual respect for every Mexican citizen.

The guiding principle is simple: a country belongs to its citizens, not its rulers. Collective wealth must be managed collectively, with complete transparency, ongoing accountability, and direct participation from every individual. There is no other path to true democracy.

NOTE: This program is not final or immutable. It is a starting point that is refined through the active participation of Mexican citizens on the DDS platform. Each proposal can be improved, criticized, and voted on directly by those who experience its consequences.

PART I — DIAGNOSIS: THE UNFILTERED MEXICAN REALITY

1.1 | Power structure and its systemic failures

Mexico formally has a federal representative democracy. In practice, the system concentrates power in three mutually reinforcing and protective nodes: the Federal Executive with vast extra-constitutional powers; the political parties that function as private enterprises for state capture; and the economic power groups that finance both. The result is a facade democracy where the vote changes the names but not the structures.

The Congress of the Union—comprised of 500 deputies and 128 senators—rarely legislates for the benefit of the citizenry. Party discipline transforms legislators into party operatives, not representatives of the people. Most of the laws passed benefit identifiable interest groups. Ninety-five percent of Mexican citizens have never directly participated in any real political decision that affects them.

STRUCTURAL PROBLEM: The Mexican electoral system allows 0.001% of the population—party leaders, donors, and operatives—to determine which options are offered to voters. Citizens choose from options they did not select. That is not democracy: it is a managed simulation.

1.2 | The real economy: figures that the government does not publish in headlines

Mexico is the world's 12th largest economy by nominal GDP (approximately $1.4 trillion in 2024), which should guarantee widespread well-being. It doesn't. The reason is the structurally unequal distribution of that wealth.

GDP per capita (PPP)	~11,000 USD/year — 75th percentile worldwide, but extremely unevenly distributed
Gini coefficient	0.45 — one of the highest in Latin America. The richest 10% hold 64% of the national wealth.
Multidimensional poverty	46% of the population (CONEVAL 2022) — approximately 55 million people
Extreme poverty	8.9 million people without simultaneous access to food, health, housing, or minimum income
Informal employment	56% of the workforce — without social protection, without a guaranteed pension, without real labor rights
Estimated tax evasion	300 billion pesos annually — one third of the federal education budget
Public debt	50.5% of GDP — manageable in absolute terms, but growing and poorly invested
Estimated capital flight	$60-80 billion annually — a figure that exceeds the foreign direct investment received

These numbers are not statistical accidents. They are the predictable result of policies consciously designed to transfer public wealth to privileged private actors.

1.3 | Public security: the undeclared failed state

Mexico has recorded between 28,000 and 33,000 intentional homicides annually since 2018—more than many countries in a state of open war. Official figures systematically underestimate the true extent of the violence due to methodological manipulation of investigation files and the high rate of unreported crimes (estimated at 92% by INEGI).

There are approximately 200 organized criminal groups operating within the country, with an effective presence in 83% of its municipalities. The state has not lost its monopoly on violence; in many regions, it never had it. Police and judicial corruption is not an exception to the system; it is an inherent part of its functioning.

CRITICAL FACT: According to the 2023 ENVIPE survey, 66% of Mexicans consider living in their city unsafe. This perception is not irrational: it is a rational, adaptive response to verifiable, objective risk conditions.

The militarized model of public security adopted since 2006 has empirically proven ineffective. More militarization does not produce less violence when the structural causes—inequality, impunity, institutional corruption, lack of opportunities—remain untouched.

1.4 | Education: the system that reproduces inequality

Mexico invests 4.3% of its GDP in education—below the OECD average (5.0%). The 2022 PISA tests placed Mexico among the lowest-performing OECD countries in reading comprehension, mathematics, and science. The Mexican education system operates at two different levels: elite private schools that produce internationally competitive professionals, and public schools that, with a few notable exceptions, perpetuate the poverty of their students.

Functional illiteracy—people who can read but don't understand what they read—affects 43% of the adult population, according to estimates from INEA. This isn't a problem of collective intelligence: it's the result of a system designed to produce obedient workers, not critical citizens.

1.5 | Health: the three-speed system

Mexico operates a fragmented healthcare system comprised of three subsystems with radically different levels of quality: the IMSS for formal sector workers (partial coverage, overcrowded); the ISSSTE for government employees (better coverage, also limited); and state-run services for everyone else—underfunded, with outdated equipment and insufficient staff. Twenty-one percent of the population has no formal healthcare coverage whatsoever.

Maternal mortality in indigenous states is three times the national average. The elimination of the Seguro Popular program and the chaotic creation of the IMSS-Bienestar program have worsened access to medicines in rural areas. This is not a statistic: it is a death sentence.

1.6 | Corruption: the system within the system

Mexico ranks 126th out of 180 in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index (2023). Corruption in Mexico is not a dysfunction of the system; it is a function of the system. It operates as a reverse redistribution mechanism, transferring public resources to private actors connected to political power.

DIRECT CONSEQUENCE: Annual losses due to corruption amount to 9% of GDP—approximately 900 billion pesos. Each year, this is equivalent to not building 200 hospitals, 2,000 schools, or 50,000 km of roads. It is a political choice, not a natural disaster.

 

PART II — FOUNDATIONS: THE DDS PRINCIPLES APPLIED TO MEXICO

2.1 | Why the DDS model is the correct answer

Mexico's problems are not new. Nor are the analyses. What has been historically lacking is a transformation model that is simultaneously: radical in its diagnosis (getting to the root of the problem), realistic in its solutions (based on what works), democratic in its method (decisions made by those who live with them), and coherent in its execution (not giving in to vested interests).

DirectDemocracyS proposes exactly that. Not as a rigid ideology, but as a governance system based on verifiable principles: collective ownership of what belongs to everyone, direct citizen decision-making on public affairs, shared and rotating leadership, and ongoing accountability—not just every six years in a ballot box.

2.2 | Five guiding principles for Mexico

1. REAL POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY: Every Mexican is an equal owner of the territory, natural resources, and public institutions. This ownership is not symbolic—it implies a real right to decision-making, benefit, and control.
2. TOTAL TRANSPARENCY: All public spending, all government decisions, and all contracts must be publicly verifiable in real time. Opacity is the mother of corruption.
3. SMART SUBSIDIARITY: Decisions are made at the level closest to those who experience them. What a municipality can decide, the Federal Government should not.
4. MERIT-BASED COMPETITION: No public office is inherited, bought, or obtained through party loyalty. It is earned through demonstrated ability and maintained through verified performance.
5. JUSTICE AS A PREREQUISITE: Without equal justice for all—rich, poor, powerful, and marginalized—there is no true democracy. Impunity is incompatible with collective dignity.

2.3 | The micro-group model and fractal democracy

DDS organizes citizen participation in primary groups of 5 people, which are then articulated into groups of 25, 125, and 625, up to the national level. This fractal model ensures that no decision is made by someone disconnected from its real impact. Applied to Mexico:

• Each colony has its own deliberation and proposal group
• Each municipality adds up the groups of its neighborhoods with verifiable proportional representation
• Each state adds the municipalities under the same principle
• The federal level receives proposals that have already been deliberated — it does not improvise in a political vacuum

This model is not utopian: it is a technological update of direct democracy made possible by the digital scale. The difference from previous models is that DDS implements it systematically and comprehensively, with triple identity verification and protected anonymity.

 

PART III — POLITICAL PROGRAM: INSTITUTIONAL REDESIGN

3.1 | Structural constitutional reform

The 1917 Political Constitution of the United Mexican States—with its more than 700 amendments—has lost internal coherence. Each administration modifies it to suit its own agenda, creating a contradictory text that no citizen fully understands. DDS proposes convening a Citizen Constituent Assembly.

3.1.1 | Citizen Constituent Assembly

Composition: 500 delegates selected through a verified citizen lottery, with guaranteed representation from all regions, age groups, genders, and Indigenous peoples. No active member of a political party may participate. The assembly deliberates for 18 months with complete transparency and real-time citizen access.

INTERNATIONAL EXAMPLE: Iceland conducted a citizen-led constitutional process in 2010-2011 with direct participation through digital platforms. The resulting text enjoyed greater democratic legitimacy than any constitution drafted by political elites.

3.1.2 | Binding direct democracy

Any decision with a national impact exceeding 500 billion pesos must be submitted to a binding citizen referendum. Decisions with a state or municipal impact follow the same principle at the municipal level.

• Abrogative referendum: any law can be submitted for repeal with 1 million verified signatures
• Binding citizen initiative: 500,000 signatures compel Congress to debate within 60 business days
• Permanent recall election: any elected official can be recalled with 25% of the registered voters.

3.2 | Radical electoral reform

The National Electoral Institute in its current form is a costly, politicized, and easily captured organization. Its council members are appointed by the very political powers they are meant to oversee—an insurmountable structural contradiction.

6. Elimination of public funding for parties as it exists: campaign funds are transferred to a common fund distributed equally among all individual candidates who exceed a minimum threshold of verified citizen support.
7. Absolute prohibition of private campaign financing: no donor may financially influence an electoral process. Violation is a serious crime with no statute of limitations.
8. Real and audited campaign spending limits: with real-time citizen monitoring by people designated by lottery.
9. Strengthened independent candidacies: with requirements proportional to the population of the district, no higher than those required of the parties.
10. Universal overseas vote: the 13 million Mexicans abroad have the full right to participate in all elections.

3.3 | Judicial reform

The Mexican judiciary is the weakest link in the democratic system. Lower courts are systematically infiltrated by organized crime in many regions.

DDS WARNING: The recently proposed popular election of judges is a demagogic reform that exacerbates the problem. A judge who needs votes to win cannot deliver impartial justice: they need to act politically to be re-elected. Judicial independence is built on selection based on demonstrated merit, not on electoral campaigns.

11. Judges are selected through a national public competition with rigorous technical, psychological, and integrity evaluations. The competitions are broadcast live, and the criteria are published before the evaluation.
12. Meritorious judicial career: promotions based on resolution rate, legal quality of judgments and zero reversals due to procedural nullity.
13. Specialized Anti-Corruption Chamber with national jurisdiction, autonomous budget and judges protected by anonymity during trials related to organized crime.
14. Restorative justice as a complement: for non-violent crimes, community mediation mechanisms reduce procedural burden and produce better social reintegration results.
15. A strengthened Public Defender's Office: with equal resources to the prosecution. Currently, the gap is 10:1 in favor of the prosecution.

3.4 | Real decentralization of power

Mexico is nominally a federal state, but it operates as a hypercentralized system where the federal executive controls tax revenue sharing and can informally discipline governors through budget management. DDS proposes genuine fiscal federalism.

Specific proposal: each state retains 60% of the taxes generated within its territory. The Federal Fund is financed with the remaining 40%, earmarked exclusively for functions of national interest. Municipalities receive 30% of local tax revenue directly, bypassing state control.

VERIFIABLE CONSEQUENCE: A municipality that knows 30% of its revenue stays locally has direct incentives to combat local tax evasion, attract investment, and improve services. Currently, it lacks this structural incentive.

 

PART IV — ECONOMIC PROGRAM: WEALTH FOR ALL

4.1 | In-depth economic diagnosis

The Mexican economy suffers from two major structural problems. The first is concentration: 16 economic groups control 40% of non-governmental GDP. The second is dependency: 81% of exports go to the United States, and 35% of Mexican GDP depends directly on U.S. demand. A slowdown in the U.S. triggers a recession in Mexico, without Mexican citizens having any say in the matter.

4.2 | Tax reform: the great rebalancing

Mexico collects 16% of its GDP in taxes—one of the lowest percentages in the OECD (average: 34%). This isn't due to a lack of wealth, but rather a lack of political will to tax those who have it. The effective corporate income tax rate (after deductions, exemptions, and tax consolidation) hovers around 12% for large corporations, while formal sector workers pay marginal rates of 30-35%. This is a perverse inversion of tax justice.

4.2.1 | Specific fiscal measures

16. Elimination of preferential tax regimes not justified by direct employment: deductions for donations to own foundations, unlimited representation expenses and tax consolidation that allows paying taxes on consolidated net profits are eliminated immediately.
17. Net worth tax exceeding $10 million: 1% annual rate on verified net worth. Estimated additional revenue: 180 billion pesos annually.
18. Minimum effective corporate tax rate of 20%: no company with more than 500 million pesos in revenue pays less than 20% of its gross profits, regardless of the level of deductions.
19. Tax on high-frequency financial transactions: 0.1% on stock market transactions exceeding 100,000 pesos. Estimated revenue: 60 billion pesos annually.
20. Tax regularization of the informal economy through incentives, not repression: a two-year tax amnesty for small informal businesses that formalize their operations, with a zero rate in the first year and 5% in the second.

Total additional revenue estimated from the tax reform: between 400,000 and 600,000 million pesos annually — equivalent to multiplying by 1.5 the current combined budget for health and education.

4.3 | Industrial policy: sovereign reindustrialization

Mexico has deindustrialized rapidly since NAFTA (1994). Strategic sectors that could be produced locally are being massively imported. Post-COVID nearshoring represents a historic opportunity that is being missed due to a lack of proactive industrial policy.

Basic Semiconductors	Technology partnership with ASEAN and the EU for the production of 28nm+ chips — useful for Mexico without requiring the global technological frontier
Renewable energies	Domestic production of solar panels and wind turbines — Mexico has the second best solar irradiation in the world and uses it at 4% of its potential
Basic Pharmaceuticals	Restore production capacity for generic active ingredients — currently 85% is imported from China and India
Value-added agri-food	Transforming raw materials into processed products with 5-10x greater added value — today Mexico exports raw avocados and imports packaged guacamole
Digital infrastructure	National fiber optic network in 5 years for the 2,500 rural municipalities currently without quality connectivity
Popular construction	Social housing program using national materials and earthquake-resistant technology — 8 million households with active housing deficit

4.3.1 | Reformed National Development Bank

Nacional Financiera (NAFIN) and the National Foreign Trade Bank (Bancomext) are merging into a single National Development Bank with a clear mandate: to finance national SMEs in strategic sectors at preferential rates, with criteria of employment, innovation and regional impact — not speculative profitability.

Initial capitalization: 500 billion pesos from the tax reform. Portfolio target: 3 trillion pesos in productive credit over 10 years. Conditionality: each peso loaned to a private company is conditional upon verified formal employment, a real minimum wage, and social security coverage.

4.4 | Energy policy: sovereignty without inefficient statism

The Mexican energy debate is poisoned by two symmetrical fallacies: the neoliberal one (privatize everything because the market is always more efficient) and the nationalist-populist one (nationalize everything because the public sector is always better). Reality demands pragmatism based on evidence.

21. Functional separation of Pemex: exploration and extraction in the hands of the State with professional non-political management; refining and petrochemicals in a mixed company with 49% national private ownership; retail distribution open to regulated competition.
22. CFE with a verifiable dual mandate: guarantee universal access at cost price for low-income households (first 250 kWh per month); compete in the market of large industrial consumers with real efficiency criteria.
23. Energy transition plan 2025-2040: target of 55% renewable generation by 2035 and 80% by 2040, with a transition employment program for fossil fuel workers.
24. Sovereign Fund for Natural Resources: 10% of the gross profits of Pemex and CFE are deposited annually into an intergenerational fund managed by citizens — not by the government in power.

4.5 | Diversification of foreign trade

Mexico's 81% dependence on exports to the US is an unacceptable geopolitical vulnerability. Mexico needs to diversify with concrete goals: 25% of exports to Latin America within 15 years; a deep trade agreement with the European Union with binding technology transfer; an investment framework with India for medium-technology manufacturing; and an active commercial presence in sub-Saharan Africa.

 

PART V — FINANCIAL PROGRAM: MONEY AT THE SERVICE OF THE COUNTRY

5.1 | The Mexican financial system: who does it work for

The Mexican banking system is profitable for its owners—mostly foreign: BBVA, Santander, Citigroup, and HSBC control 72% of banking assets—and extremely expensive for its users. Mexico has one of the highest bank spreads in Latin America. The profits of the four largest foreign banks in Mexico exceed 200 billion pesos annually. Most of those profits leave the country.

UNCOMFORTABLE FACT: Mexicans use their savings to finance dividends paid to shareholders in Madrid, New York, and London. This isn't inevitable; it's the result of regulations designed to allow it.

5.2 | Measures on the financial system

25. Postal Bank: The network of 22,000 branches of Correos de México (Mexico's postal service) becomes an infrastructure for basic financial services (savings accounts, remittances, bill payments) for the 30 million Mexicans without bank accounts. Investment: 80 billion pesos. Estimated benefit: 150 billion pesos annually in reduced remittance costs and access to formal credit.
26. Interest rate cap on consumer credit: no financial product intended for individuals with incomes below three minimum wages can charge an annual interest rate higher than 30%. Currently, some store credit cards charge 80-100%.
27. Tax on speculative derivatives transactions: 0.5% on the notional value of transactions without an identifiable underlying asset. Estimated revenue: 45 billion pesos annually.
28. Popular credit cooperatives: updated legal framework and state guarantee fund for savings and credit cooperatives in rural and indigenous communities — a real alternative to informal lenders.
29. Full transparency in bank bonuses: Executives of banks with systemic operations in Mexico publish their total compensation annually. Bonuses exceeding 20 minimum wages are taxed at 45%.

5.3 | Verifiable Citizen Budget

• Mandatory zero-based budgeting every six years: each program justifies its existence with impact data, not with budgetary inertia
• Participatory budgeting of 5%: 5% of federal spending (approximately 450 billion pesos) is allocated directly through citizen voting on a verifiable platform
• Real-time citizen auditing: every federal contract over 5 million pesos is publicly visible before being signed, with an observation period of 15 business days.
• Elimination of secret funds: no federal agency can have a budget that is not fully audited
• Mandatory impact assessment: every program with more than 1 billion pesos is evaluated annually by an independent body using a methodology published before the evaluation

5.4 | Public debt: responsible management

30. Constitutional fiscal rule: the primary deficit cannot exceed 0.5% of GDP in any year. Exceptions require approval by 60% of Congress and a formal declaration of emergency.
31. Limit on debt in foreign currency: a maximum of 25% of the total balance of public debt can be denominated in foreign currencies.
32. Countercyclical stabilization fund: 15% of extraordinary income from oil or commodities is automatically reserved in a constitutional fund for future crises.

 

PART VI — SOCIAL PROGRAM: DIGNITY AS A STATE POLICY

6.1 | Education: real transformation

Education is the only instrument that can sustainably break the intergenerational cycle of poverty. Everything else is just a band-aid. However, transforming the education system is politically difficult because it threatens entrenched interests.

6.1.1 | Early childhood education (0-6 years)

Neuroscience is conclusive: 80% of brain development occurs before age 6. Mexico has early childhood education coverage of only 43%. The remaining children arrive at primary school with irreversible learning gaps. This is not a biological inevitability: it is the result of failing to invest where it matters.

• National network of community-based childcare centers with universal coverage: one center for every 500 children under 6 years of age nationwide
• Specialized training for early childhood educators: a specific university degree with competitive working conditions and salaries
• Home visits for families in areas of extreme poverty: early intervention in the family context with documented long-term results

6.1.2 | Basic and upper secondary education

33. Updated national curriculum with critical thinking, applied mathematics, digital skills, real civic education and at least one foreign language from the first grade.
34. Competitive teacher salary: the starting salary of a public primary school teacher should be equivalent to the average in the private sector with the same level of training.
35. Fair and formative teacher evaluation: not punitive, but diagnostic. The result identifies ongoing professional development needs.
36. Full-time schools: with guaranteed nutritious lunch and quality extracurricular activities.
37. Universal connectivity and equipment: no public school without broadband internet and updated devices before 2027.

6.1.3 | Higher Education

• Universal educational credit with deferred payment based on income: free public higher education or with a zero-interest loan that is only repaid if the graduate earns more than 2.5 minimum wages
• High-level technical training programs: the stigma of technical training as an elite luxury that Mexico cannot afford
• High-quality public online university: with internationally recognized certifications
• Reformed university-business linkage: R&D contracts that preserve intellectual property in the public institution

6.2 | Universal Health System

The fragmentation of the Mexican healthcare system is its main flaw. Three parallel systems, with three sets of infrastructure, three staff payrolls, and three drug procurement systems—resulting in constant and costly lack of coordination.

38. A single, universal public health system: IMSS, ISSSTE, and state services will be integrated within ten years under a single administration, with full portability. A Mexican in Oaxaca and another in Monterrey will access the same services with the same card.
39. Transparent tripartite financing: contribution proportional to the income of workers, employers and the State.
40. Reformed primary care system: 5,000 community health centers reactivated with full staffing. 80% of health problems are resolved at the primary care level.
41. National mental health program: 17% of Mexicans suffer from some type of mental disorder; 85% do not receive care. Direct economic cost: 1.5% of annual GDP in lost productivity.
42. National production of essential medicines: the 200 medicines on the National List are produced in national laboratories or purchased through international consolidated purchasing.

6.3 | Housing: the right that does not exist in practice

43. INFONAVIT reform: the housing fund can be used to build on your own land, remodel existing housing or rent — not just to buy in remote developments without infrastructure.
44. Real estate speculation tax: properties vacant for more than 12 months in high-demand urban areas pay a progressive rate that starts at 2% of the cadastral value and reaches 6% in the fifth year.
45. High-rise social housing program: In established urban areas, vertical social housing is three to five times more efficient in its use of land. The experiences of Vienna, Singapore, and Santiago demonstrate that quality is achievable.
46. Mass regularization of irregular land tenure: 12 million Mexican households have tenure issues. Regularization increases the value of family assets and allows access to credit.

6.4 | Universal social security

47. Guaranteed universal minimum pension: every Mexican over 65 years of age automatically receives a pension equivalent to 100% of the minimum wage, without the condition of having contributed.
48. Reform of the pension fund system: management fees are reduced to 0.3% annually. Over 40 years, the difference represents 18% of each worker's accumulated fund.
49. Recognition of care work: people who care for minor children or family members with disabilities contribute to the pension system through the corresponding tax regime.

 

PART VII — PUBLIC SECURITY: PEACE WITH JUSTICE

7.1 | The strategic error of the 'war on drugs'

Fifty years of the 'war on drugs' in Mexico have empirically demonstrated that the punitive-militarized model does not work. Consumption has not decreased, violence has increased, criminal organizations have become more sophisticated, and the state has spent ever-increasing resources to achieve diminishing results. This is not an ideological opinion: it is the result of decades of academic research in criminology, public health, and the economics of crime.

7.2 | Four dimensions of simultaneous intervention

7.2.1 | Social prevention

50. National Guaranteed Youth Employment Program: Every Mexican between 18 and 25 years old without formal employment has guaranteed access to public or subsidized employment for 12 months. Cost: 120 billion pesos. Estimated savings in the cost of juvenile delinquency: 300 billion pesos.
51. Comprehensive community centers in the 100 municipalities with the highest levels of violence: spaces for sports, culture, technical training and psychosocial care, with a budget guaranteed for 10 years.
52. Public space reclamation program: Communities that actively occupy their public spaces register significantly lower crime rates. Preventive urban planning is the most cost-effective approach.

7.2.2 | Radical police reform

• Competitive police salary: A municipal police officer's starting salary should be equivalent to the average salary in their municipality. Today it is 60-70% of that average.
• 18-month professional police training: with emphasis on human rights, proportional use of force, scientific crime investigation, and community work.
• Independent internal and external control system: police conduct review cannot be self-regulated. Citizen oversight bodies with real sanctioning power.
• Meritocratic police career: promotions are based on verified results, not seniority or personal loyalties.

7.2.3 | Evidence-based drug regulation

DDS adopts the position supported by scientific evidence: drug use is a public health problem, not a crime. Criminalizing users does not reduce consumption and increases the vulnerability of addicts.

• Decriminalization of the consumption of all drugs for personal use: treatment as a health problem, with access to harm reduction programs
• Legal regulation of cannabis with a state monopoly on production and sales: eliminating the black market and generating tax revenue.
• Investment in addiction treatment: Mexico has the capacity to treat 3% of people with substance use disorders — this is insufficient

7.2.4 | Combating Money Laundering

Criminal groups in Mexico launder between $25 billion and $43 billion annually. Without this ability to launder money, criminal organizations would fall apart. Combating money laundering is more effective than militarization because it attacks the criminal economy.

53. Autonomous Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) with direct reporting to Congress — not to the Executive.
54. Automatic exchange of tax information with 80 countries: no tax haven can be used to hide assets of Mexican criminal origin.
55. Extended confiscation without prior conviction for assets of unexplained origin: the burden of proof is reversed for assets that exceed 10 times the declared income.
56. Real registry of ultimate beneficial owners of companies: no company operates in Mexico without publicly identifying the natural persons who ultimately own it.

 

PART VIII — ENVIRONMENT: PLANETARY VIABILITY

8.1 | Environmental diagnosis

Mexico is one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries—possessing 12% of global terrestrial biodiversity on just 1.4% of the planet's surface. This wealth is simultaneously an extraordinary asset and a responsibility that the State has systematically failed to fulfill.

Annual deforestation	70,000 hectares/year — equivalent to losing 100 football fields every hour
Access to rural drinking water	37% of the rural population lacks access to quality drinking water
Overexploitation of aquifers	105 of the 653 national aquifers are critically overexploited
Air pollution	Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Monterrey exceed PM2.5 standards more than 200 days a year
Solid waste	30% of municipal waste ends up in open dumps
GHG emissions	Mexico produces 1.5% of global emissions — with an increasing trend

8.2 | Just ecological transition

'Fair' means that the transition is not paid for by those who least caused it. Fossil fuel workers and lower-income households require specific protection during the transition process.

57. Progressive and universal carbon tax: 200 pesos/ton of CO2 (double the current rate) with an annual increase of 10% up to 800 pesos/ton in 2030. The revenues (estimated at 400 billion pesos annually by 2030) are redistributed: 50% as a universal citizen dividend, 50% to finance the energy transition.
58. Prohibition of new oil exploration in protected natural areas and coastal zones of high biodiversity.
59. National reforestation plan with native species: 500 million trees annually in degraded ecosystems, with participation and economic benefit of local communities as paid forest guardians.
60. Water as an enforceable constitutional right: water concessions to industries cannot be granted at the expense of domestic access. Concessions are reviewed every 5 years.
61. Circular economy program: targets to reduce waste to landfill by 50% in 2030 and 90% in 2040.

 

PART IX — INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AND MINORITIES: HISTORICAL DEBT

9.1 | The unredeemed historical debt

Mexico has 68 recognized Indigenous peoples, representing 21.5% of the population—approximately 25 million people. Statistically, they rank at the bottom in all well-being indices: education, health, income, and life expectancy. This position is neither accidental nor the result of supposed cultural incapacity. It is the documented result of centuries of territorial dispossession, the destruction of their own systems of governance, and structural discrimination.

9.2 | Real autonomy, not rhetoric

62. Full constitutional recognition of legal pluralism: indigenous normative systems are recognized as valid legal systems within their territorial scope, within the limits of fundamental human rights.
63. Prior, free, and informed consultation is binding: no extractive or infrastructure project can be carried out in indigenous territories without consultation that meets the standards of ILO Convention 169. Consultation is co-decision-making, not unilateral information.
64. Self-managed indigenous development fund: 5% of the income obtained by the State from natural resources extracted from indigenous territories is deposited into funds managed by the communities themselves.
65. Genuine intercultural bilingual education: instruction in the mother tongue for the first three years, with a gradual introduction of Spanish. Teachers are members of the community with specific pedagogical training.
66. Registration of indigenous territories and recognition of collective property: with constitutional protection against involuntary alienation.

 

PART X — FOREIGN RELATIONS: SOVEREIGNTY WITH RECIPROCITY

10.1 | Mexico's geopolitical position

Mexico shares a 3,145 km border with the world's leading power and simultaneously leads the Latin American hemisphere. This geographic position is a source of both opportunities and asymmetrical pressures. Managing this duality requires a foreign policy with clear principles, not one of subservience or unproductive confrontation.

10.2 | DDS Foreign Policy Principles

67. Non-intervention with active reciprocity: Mexico does not intervene in the internal affairs of other states and demands the same respect. This includes standing firm against U.S. pressures that are contrary to Mexican interests, without resorting to rhetorical confrontation that yields no results.
68. Active multilateralism: Mexico leads the reform of international organizations so that they reflect the reality of the multipolar world of the 21st century, not the power correlations of 1945.
69. Pragmatic Latin American integration: the Pacific Alliance as an economic instrument with real deepening; the rapprochement with Brazil as a joint regional axis of weight.
70. Consular diplomacy as a true service: Mexico's 150 consulates abroad are the embassies of the 13 million Mexicans living overseas. They must become centers of service, legal advocacy, and community engagement—not bureaucratic offices.
71. South-South cooperation: Mexico, as an upper-middle-income economy, has the responsibility and the strategic interest to be a relevant actor in development cooperation with Central America, the Caribbean, and Africa. Not as philanthropy: as building markets and alliances.

 

PART XI — IMPLEMENTATION PLAN: HOW IT BECOMES REAL

11.1 | Implementation phases

No real transformation of this scale happens simultaneously. DDS proposes a phased plan with verifiable goals, identified funding, and corrective mechanisms built in from the design stage.

PHASE	PERIOD	NAME	MAIN PRIORITIES
PHASE 1	Years 1-2	Foundations	Tax reform, anti-corruption, electoral reform, basic security, immediate social emergency
PHASE 2	Years 3-6	Construction	Integrated health system, comprehensive education reform, judicial reform, active industrial policy
PHASE 3	Ages 7-12	Consolidation	Real federalism, energy transition, indigenous autonomy, external diversification
PHASE 4	Ages 13-20	Maturity	Systemic evaluation, participatory adjustments, second generation of citizen reforms

11.2 | Program Financing

The program does not require additional debt. It is financed with three identified and quantified sources:

Tax reform — additional revenue	400,000 - 600,000 million pesos annually
Reduction of corruption — direct savings	250,000 - 400,000 million pesos annually
Budget reallocation — efficiency	150,000 - 200,000 million pesos annually
TOTAL ADDITIONAL AVAILABLE	800,000 - 1,200,000 million pesos annually
Total cost of the program (phases 1-2)	700,000 - 900,000 million pesos annually
PROJECTED BALANCE	POSITIVE — surplus allocated to the Intergenerational Sovereign Fund

COMPARATIVE REFERENCE: Evidence from countries that have implemented similar tax reforms (Scandinavia 1950-1970, Costa Rica 1948-1980, Portugal post-1974) shows that the economic benefits of less corruption, higher education, and better health outweigh the implementation costs by a ratio of 3:1 over 10 years.

11.3 | Verifiable Success Metrics

DDS doesn't make promises without indicators. Each objective has a quantifiable metric, a deadline, and political consequences if it isn't met.

AIM	BASELINE 2024	GOAL	TERM
Reduce extreme poverty	8.9% of the population	2% or less	8 years
Tax revenue as a percentage of GDP	16% of GDP	22% of GDP	6 years
Universal health coverage	79% of the population	100%	10 years
Reduce intentional homicides	26 per 100,000 inhabitants	Less than 15 per 100,000	8 years
Higher education coverage	38% of the population	70%	10 years
Renewable energy generation	9% of total generation	55%	10 years
Eliminate functional illiteracy	43% of the adult population	Less than 10%	10 years
Corruption Perceptions Index	Ranked 126th out of 180 countries	Among the top 50	10 years

11.4 | Accountability Mechanism

The program is reviewed annually with direct citizen participation. The results for each indicator are published monthly on a publicly accessible platform. Each political leader has verifiable individual targets. Repeated non-compliance triggers the citizen recall mechanism.

This isn't about punishing honest failure; it's about eliminating the pretense of success. An official who makes a mistake and acknowledges it deserves a chance to correct it. An official who fakes results deserves immediate and permanent punishment.

 

PART XII — CONCLUSION: THE ONLY ROYAL ROAD

Mexico has everything it needs to be a prosperous, just, and democratic country. It has territory, natural resources, extraordinary biodiversity, a strategic geographic location, one of the most economically active diasporas in the world, an ancient culture, and a young, creative, and hardworking population.

What has been lacking is not talent or resources: what has been lacking is a system of governance that puts those resources at the service of everyone, and not just a minority connected to political power. What has been lacking is real democracy—not its simulation.

DirectDemocracyS is not here to offer a leader who will solve everything. It is here to build the system that makes leaders truly accountable, that ensures collective decisions are made collectively, and that the wealth produced by everyone is distributed in a way that leaves no one excluded from basic dignity.

This program is not the end of the debate: it's the beginning of the real conversation. Every proposal can be criticized, improved, and voted on directly. That's not weakness—it's the only honest way to do politics.

Mexico deserves real democracy. Mexican citizens are ready. The system must follow them.

DirectDemocracyS — Global Political Organization

public.directdemocracys.org

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