Rushing Infrastructure Projects Under Austerity: The Militarization of the Mexican Public Administration During AMLO’s Government

In this article, we examine the militarization of public administration in Mexico under President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO). Between 2018 and 2024, AMLO expanded the military’s role beyond traditional public security and disaster response to include civilian tasks, such as infrastructure construction, social program delivery, and the operation of public agencies. We argue that this shift is not solely the result of authoritarian impulses. Instead, it reflects a convergence of fiscal austerity, infrastructure as a political priority, and distrust of technocratic bureaucracies. Using a process-tracing methodology, we analyze public spending data, official speeches, and policy decisions to show how austerity weakened civilian capacity, positioning the military as a practical alternative. Militarization enabled the government to circumvent administrative constraints while pursuing flagship infrastructure projects. Our findings contribute to debates on civil-military relations, populism, and neo-developmentalism in contexts of middle-quality institutions, highlighting how militarization can emerge from developmental goals under fiscal and administrative constraints.