Conversation #38 - Roberto Ortiz - Mexican Police Officer: Losing Both Legs, Finding a New Mission

**Summary** Roberto Ortiz spent his career protecting people from some of the most dangerous men in Mexico. Then one night at a checkpoint, everything he built his identity around was taken from him in seconds. Roberto started in logistics and supply chain management, working for companies like Honeywell and Jabil, before joining the police in 2019. He rose to lead a high impact operations group, similar to a SWAT team, running raids and investigations against organized crime and cartels out of the Attorney General's office in Chihuahua, including in Ciudad Juarez. He talks honestly about what that work actually pays, often around $1,500 USD a month after several years of service, and how underpayment creates the exact conditions that leave officers vulnerable to corruption. In 2022, Roberto and his team were pulled back from vacation after a major drug bust involving roughly 500 kilos of fentanyl and crystal meth. A high ranking commander and an immigration officer had been kidnapped and killed, and Roberto's team set up a checkpoint on the road leading to where the attackers were believed to be hiding. While checking vehicles that night, a car rammed into him at high speed. He suffered catastrophic injuries and massive blood loss, and his partner Edgar used makeshift tourniquets to keep him alive while Roberto called his wife to say goodbye. What followed exposed the gaps in Mexico's medical system. A government hospital turned him away for not being in their network, and a private hospital demanded $25,000 in cash his family did not have, before he was finally admitted to a public hospital. During transport, Roberto experienced what he describes as an out of body moment, seeing his life pass in golden light, at a point when doctors gave him only a five percent chance of survival. He survived, but both legs were eventually amputated above the knee. Roberto speaks candidly about what came after. The confusion and fear in the early days of recovery, the strength his wife gave him just by being present, and why relearning how to live again was harder than the injury itself. Left without real support from his employer for two years, he built his own rehabilitation program, studying clinics overseas and working with a local prosthetics provider to design his own exercises. Today his mission has shifted toward intelligence work, speaking, and podcasting, using his story to help other men find purpose after everything has been taken from them. **Connect with Roberto Ortiz** TikTok - @revixi1 Instagram - @robertoortiz.oficial Email - roberto.ortiz.puertas@gmail.com Support Robert with getting new prosthetics GOFUND ME PAGE **Connect with Motivated Masculine Men** Website - www.motivatedmasculinemen.com Email - [brotherhood@motivatedmasculinemen.com](mailto:brotherhood@motivatedmasculinemen.com) If you'd like to be a guest on the podcast, or know someone who would be a great fit, we'd love to hear from you. Get in touch by email. **What You'll Learn** In this conversation you'll learn: - ​How Roberto transitioned from a logistics and supply chain career into becoming a police officer in 2019 - ​What it was like leading a high impact operations group against organized crime and cartels in Mexico - ​The events of the 2022 checkpoint operation that led to Roberto being struck by a vehicle at high speed - ​How his partner used makeshift tourniquets to keep him alive after catastrophic blood loss - ​Why he called his wife to say goodbye during the incident, believing he would not survive - ​The failures in Mexico's medical system that nearly cost him his life before he reached proper care - ​What he experienced during a near death moment, and how doctors gave him only a five percent chance of survival - ​How his wife's presence gave him the strength to get through the hardest parts of recovery - ​Why learning to live again was harder than the physical injuries themselves - ​How he built his own rehabilitation program after being left without support for two years