Cabinet Profile: Omar Garcia Harfuch, Secretary of Security

Omar Garcia Harfuch serves as Secretary of Security in the cabinet of President Claudia Sheinbaum.

The official title of the department in Spanish is the Secretaría de Seguridad y Protección Ciudadana (SSPC), the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection. It is responsible for public safety and security.

The individual in charge of that department is the Secretario de Seguridad y Protección Ciudadana, The Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection.

Omar Hamid Garcia Harfuch was born in Cuernavaca in the state of Morelos in 1982. Both his parents were famous.

His father, Jose Garcia Paniagua, had served as president of the PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institucional) from March to October of 1981; and in two Mexican cabinet positions, as Secretary of Agrarian Reform from 1980 to 1981 and as Secretary of Labor from October to December of 1981. Garcia Paniagua was actually in consideration to be the PRI candidate for president but was passed over in favor of Miguel de la Madrid, who was elected president in 1982. Garcia Paniagua passed away in 1998.

Garcia Harfuch’s mother was the actress and singer María Sorté, whose birth name was Maria Harfuch Hidalgo. She was active as recent as 2024 when she starred in the telenovela Las hijas de la señora García.

María Sorté’s real surname Harfuch is of Arab origin, was prominent in Lebanon, and now is in Mexico as a result of Levantine immigration.

Omar Garcia Harfuch earned a bachelor’s degree in law and public security at the UVM (Universidad del Valle de México).

Garcia Harfuch entered the Federal Police in 2008, in 2012 became coordinator of the Federal Police in the state of Guerrero and in 2015 entered the Criminal Investigation Agency of the Attorney General’s office.

In 2019, Garcia Harfuch was named Chief of Police of Mexico City by then-Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum (now the President). His official title was Secretario de Seguridad Ciudadana de la Ciudad de México and he served in that capacity from 2019 to 2023.

In 2020, while traveling Mexico City’s Paseo de la Reforma boulevard, Garcia Harfuch was attacked and injured in an assassination attempt which killed two members of his security detail and a passerby.

In 2023, Garcia Harfuch ran for Mayor of Mexico City against Clara Brugada. He was beating her in the polls but his candidacy was canceled due to gender-parity affirmative action policy. So Clara Brugada became the candidate, won in 2024 and is now Mayor (Jefa de Gobierno).

In 2024, Garcia Harfuch ran for the Mexican Senate and won, but presidential winner Claudia Sheinbaum asked him to serve in her cabinet as Secretary of Security so he only served on month (September of 2024) before Sheinbaum took office on October 1st, on which date he also became Mexico’s Top Cop.

So Garcia Harfuch went from serving as Mexico City Chief of Police under Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum to serving as Mexico’s Chief of Police under President Claudia Sheinbaum.