Pensions in Mexico: a latent problem

Abstract

The pension system in Mexico, stemming from the lack of constitutional foundations that establish the minimum basis for implementing a social security system that effectively guarantees the human right to social security, is entering an unprecedented crisis. The reforms in this area that have been enacted in recent years do not provide a viable solution to resolve this issue in the short term, as a gap persists between the social security benefits available to certain social groups due to the absence of general frameworks for financing and granting pensions and social security benefits.

Around the world, it is evident that various countries face similar situations, particularly those that privatized pensions in their respective systems. Nearly half of these countries have either reversed the legal reforms that privatized these benefits or, at the very least, partially rolled them back. This indicates that the privatization of pensions failed to address the issues it was supposed to resolve and, in some cases, exacerbated them. Notably, the country where the individual pension capitalization model first emerged has since partially reformed the pension system it implemented—a system that at least 30 other countries adopted.