Overview
- The World Justice Project published its 2026 Rule of Law Index on Wednesday, Oct. 21, covering 143 countries and finding that 62% worsened in the past year.
- Mexico fell to 125th with a score of 0.39, driven by a sharp collapse in criminal justice that dropped 21.2% since 2021 and left the country with a 0.22 score and 139th place on that factor.
- Argentina slipped to 64th with a 0.54 score after small year‑on‑year declines concentrated in civil liberties, citizen participation and weaknesses in security and criminal justice.
- In Latin America and the Caribbean, 19 of 32 evaluated countries worsened over the year while Uruguay, Costa Rica and Barbados rank highest regionally and Venezuela ranks last globally.
- The index uses more than 215,000 household surveys and 3,400 expert and legal‑professional surveys and shows 86% of countries have sustained deterioration in at least one institutional safeguard, a trend that makes it harder for citizens to hold leaders to account and raises governance risks for investors and aid providers.