Politics: Justice, security and militarization
The aspect of the government’s security strategy that has drawn the widest criticism is its plan to establish a militarized National Guard to deal with the country’s security crisis. Those concerns were magnified in recent days when President Andrés Manuel López Obrador reversed course and called on the Senate to strip out the cosmetic changes made to the administration bill by his own supporters in the Chamber of Deputies, amendments that attempted to provide an illusion of civilian control over this new, all-purpose security force.
The legislation fails to address vast operational and administrative problems with the transition to the Guard, thereby setting the stage for a disorganized and inefficient arrangement. But the most troubling aspect is the intention to raise the militarization of the Guard to the level of constitutional law and permanently entrust public security to the Army while also discarding any effort to rebuild the nation’s civilian police forces.
During the recent special session the government could not get its proposal through the Senate with the qualified majority required of constitutional amendments, so attention now shifts to the regular session of Congress that gets underway at the beginning of February. But before such legal niceties have been worked out, the Army has already intensified its public presence and operations around the country as it plays the central role in the government crackdown on fuel theft operations, with all the deficiencies they have displayed in managing public security issues and for which they have not been properly trained. The tragic events January 18, in Tlahuelilpan, Hidalgo, in which well over a 100 people burned to death, underscored the extent to which such troops were unprepared and poorly coordinated.
Last week’s release of government crime data through December highlighted another aspect of the security crisis, as the report confirmed that 2018 produced a record 33,096 intentional homicides, making it the most violent year in Mexico since the government began to actively attempt to contain insecurity and violence 12 years ago. The violence continues to grow and expand geographically, with the murder toll rising in 25 out of 32 states.
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