MEXICO CITY — His heart pounding, Omar García Harfuch crouched inside an armored SUV as hooded cartel assassins opened fire in one of Mexico City’s wealthiest neighborhoods just as dawn broke one morning in 2020.

Bullets tore through his collarbone, arm and knee. Two bodyguards were bloodied and would soon die. García Harfuch grabbed one of their rifles and began shooting back, trying to fend off attackers until reinforcements arrived.

Then Mexico City’s police chief, García Harfuch didn’t just survive the assassination attempt. His resolve stiffened, and his career took off.

Now, as President Claudia Sheinbaum’s security minister, he’s Mexico’s top cop.

It’s a big job, more so now that Donald Trump has placed relentless pressure on Sheinbaum to vanquish drug cartels and end fentanyl trafficking — or face punishing tariffs on Mexican goods. Trump is even signaling potential military force to strike drug lords himself.

That has thrust García Harfuch into the spotlight as Sheinbaum works to satisfy Trump’s demands, putting him at the center of both talks over a new U.S. security agreement that would bolster the fight against cartels and Mexico’s push to cinch a trade pact its export-driven economy desperately needs.

García Harfuch has earned praise for helping deliver on Sheinbaum's vision of increased cooperation with the U.S. On the issue of security, he’s “probably the best interlocutor on the Mexican side that I’ve seen in my experience, and I think the results are evident,” said Mauricio Claver-Carone, who served as Trump’s Latin America envoy until late May and played a key role in the administration's security and migration work with Mexico.The attack sheds light on how aggressively he approaches the challenge.

Hours after the shooting stopped, he defiantly promised to go on the offensive against the gangs that make up a vast criminal underworld responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths and countless missing persons. As he recovered in the hospital, he even posed for a photo with both legs and one arm in casts, and a short-barreled assault rifle nearby.

He’s since won credit for helping Sheinbaum, then Mexico City’s mayor, curb violence in the capital, and for following through on pledges to dismantle operations of some leaders of the cartel he said was behind the ambush.

The exploits have made him popular enough to fuel speculation that García Harfuch may succeed Sheinbaum as president. They have also turned him even more private as he tries to protect loved ones from a battle those close to him say has become an obsession.

The combination has earned the enigmatic minister a fitting nickname: many Mexicans call him Batman.

‘This job is his life’

Each weekday morning, García Harfuch joins his boss and other Cabinet officials for 6 a.m. security meetings. But it’s appearances at Sheinbaum’s daily press conferences — mostly during twice-monthly crime briefings — that have put him front-and-center in Mexican homes.

Known for his chiseled good looks, García Harfuch talks like a cop trained to follow orders. His answers are short. He shares only what’s necessary. He’s polite but authoritative, and rarely smiles.

It’s nearly impossible to approach him at events. A security detail of tall, muscular body guards keeps everyone at a distance, their eyes darting constantly. It’s even harder to spot him in public.

“Omar doesn’t go to restaurants, I’ve never seen him anywhere that isn’t strictly related to his duties,” said Ilan Katz, a lawyer who has known him for years. “For Omar, this job is his life.”

García Harfuch studied law and public administration before joining Mexico’s federal police, which has since been disbanded. Prior to leading the sprawling Mexican capital’s police force he oversaw investigations for the city’s chief prosecutor.

He comes from a long line of hard-nosed security officials.

His grandfather, Marcelino García Barragán, was Mexico’s defense minister in the 1960s, an especially repressive juncture of the Institutional Revolutionary Party’s long rule. He’s best known for overseeing a notorious Army sniper attack on student protesters in 1968, just before Mexico hosted the Olympics. Several hundred died and many more were wounded.His father, Javier García Paniagua, oversaw a federal security agency during the 1970s, a period in which it faced accusations of violently targeting student and guerrilla groups.

Notoriously guarded about his private life, García Harfuch declined multiple interview requests. He has described his father as tough but loving, but spoken little about his family or how its experiences shaped his approach to security.

He speaks so infrequently about his daughters it’s unclear how old they are, or how many he has. He was once rumored to be dating businesswoman Ninfa Salinas, daughter of Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas, but hasn’t revealed anything about a partner recently.

García Harfuch’s only Instagram posts that aren’t related to work show him with his dogs: Azam, a Dutch Shepherd, and Drink, a Labrador.

The devotion to work means he rarely sees family, even his mother María Sorté, a famous actress.

“Obviously, I haven’t been very present and, after what happened, less,” he told an interviewer last year, referring to the ambush. “There’s been a distance, also from my mom. You have to stay away.”

Expanded powers

García Harfuch sought to capitalize on that success with a brief run to succeed Sheinbaum as mayor in 2024, but failed to win the nomination to represent Morena, the dominant party to which they both belong. He coasted to victory in a Senate race instead.

Just a month after he took office, Sheinbaum made him security minister, tasking García Harfuch with taking their Mexico City approach national.

The push has focused on bolstered intelligence gathering, and last month, Morena used congressional majorities to approve legislation that granted wider access to surveillance tools that previously only the Defense Ministry and Navy could utilize.

That has given García Harfuch powers his predecessors lacked. But it has also drawn criticism from opponents who argue the law, which increases access to GPS and other civilian data, will allow the government to spy on law-abiding citizens and create a dangerous dragnet.

“They’re seeking to enable the federal government to access any Mexican citizen’s photo, fingerprints, all your Amazon purchases, your live geolocation, if you stayed in a hotel, what time you leave your home, where you go,” Senator Ricardo Anaya, an opposition leader, warned during legislative debate.“It’s the final nail in the coffin for privacy in Mexico and the establishment of a spy government,” he added.

Sheinbaum insists surveillance will require a court order. But the authorities have created internal challenges too.

Her predecessor and mentor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, concentrated security powers inside an expanded Mexican military, which saw its budget grow alongside its institutional muscle.

Sheinbaum’s efforts to delegate more of that responsibility to García Harfuch risks setting off a power struggle inside the government, and Defense Minister Ricardo Trevilla Trejo has at times appeared uncomfortable with his counterpart’s expanded role, according to a person familiar with their relationship.Trevilla Trejo didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Gun in hand

He and García Harfuch have publicly worked together.Late last year, they traveled to the city of Culiacán shortly after a bitter civil war erupted among rival factions of the powerful Sinaloa Cartel.The violence ignited after the group’s legendary co-founder Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada was abducted by a son of his longtime partner, jailed drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, and turned over to U.S. authorities. Fallout from the betrayal has taken the lives of hundreds.

García Harfuch and Trevilla Trejo toured the streets of the city, a display meant to blunt the political risks the brutality posed early in Sheinbaum’s tenure.

Far from a desk cop, García Harfuch has earned respect from rank-and-file military and security forces by showing up, gun-in-hand, on the front lines, the person said, requesting anonymity to speak candidly.

He also details his blows against cartels in splashy social media posts that tout arrests and busted drug labs, with fentanyl a special focus.

The task is massive. Mexico experienced more than 200,000 homicides under López Obrador, the bloodiest presidential term in the nation’s recent history. AMLO, as the former leader is known, took a more passive approach that focused on what he described as root causes of crime, including poverty and youth unemployment.

AMLO often clashed with the U.S., and in 2020, sharply limited U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration operations inside the country. Sheinbaum has opted for more conciliatory dealings, even while drawing a red line on U.S. military intervention in Mexican territory.That has turned García Harfuch into a frequent visitor to Washington to meet with Trump administration officials.“President Sheinbaum and Secretary García Harfuch have maintained steady communication with their U.S. counterparts on security issues,” according to a U.S. Department of State spokesperson who touted “especially robust” working-level coordination between military and law enforcement agencies.

In February, Sheinbaum authorized the unusual transfer of senior Mexican drug traffickers to face U.S. charges in February. Another group was delivered to U.S. custody last week.

Still, Mexico’s volatile criminal scene could explode at any time.

In May, motorcycle-mounted assassins gunned down two senior aides to Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada in broad daylight, rocking the country.

García Harfuch, who compulsively checks his phone at events, learned of the attack during a press conference with Sheinbaum. He calmly walked over to show her the news.

Like so many other brazen crimes in Mexico, the perpetrators have yet to be brought to justice.

---------

—With assistance from Eric Martin.

©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.