According to data from Reinserta (2022), six out of ten detained adolescents recruited by organized crime had at least one family member involved in criminal activities, and the same percentage grew up in environments where violence was part of everyday life. Furthermore, seven out of ten engaged in contract killings, and six out of ten began using drugs between the ages of 11 and 15.
The civil organization warns that these cases do not arise in isolation, but rather respond to contexts of exclusion, poverty, and community breakdown. “They are victims of structural violence that pushes them down a path from which, almost always, it is impossible to escape alive,” Reinserta notes in its statement.
The statement adds that when children grow up without access to quality education, without safe spaces, and without adult figures to protect them, crime is presented not as a choice, but as the only option. In this sense, the organization emphasized that violence in Mexico has become part of the everyday landscape and that figures such as the “child hitman” or the “adolescent criminal” reflect a collective failure.
For Reinserta, the participation of children and adolescents in criminal groups not only represents a security crisis, but also a profound social debt. Therefore, it proposed the need to classify recruitment as an independent crime, in order to recognize recruited children as victims, and to accompany this measure with comprehensive prevention and disengagement plans.
“Only if the legal framework, prevention, and disengagement advance hand in hand will we be able to address this phenomenon with the urgency and depth it requires,” the organization stated.
In response to the continued child recruitment, Reinserta launched a national tour to present the Guidelines for the Prevention of the Recruitment of Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults by Organized Criminal Groups. This material seeks to raise awareness among teachers, families, communities, and authorities about the strategies criminal groups use to detect, persuade, and recruit minors.
Through workshops, training, and conferences in different states, Reinserta seeks to strengthen care networks, promote social co-responsibility, and build safe environments for children. “No child should be a victim of a war they never chose,” the statement concludes.
Original article by Zona Docs, October 15th, 2025.
Translated by Schools for Chiapas.