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The Mexican government’s decision to entrust public security tasks to the military causes a stir in a country where the armed forces have been frequently accused of violating human rights. A judge suspended the passage of the National Guard – a civilian body – under the control of the army, as the López Obrador government wanted.
The debate on the role of the army in public life continues in Mexico. The government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador suffered a judicial setback on Monday after a judge ordered that the National Guard, a civil body created in 2019, continue under the command of the Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection, and not pass into the hands of the Secretary of Defense (SEDENA) as the government had decreed. That decision by the pro-government majority sought to leave the police force -of 115,000 men- under the operational and administrative control of the Army.
“The Constitution prescribes not only the purpose, but also the constitutionally legitimate means to carry out public security tasks: civil bodies, not military ones,” the sentence indicates.
López Obrador justified his decision on the Guard by arguing that the Armed Forces are less permeable to corruption and enjoy popularity, but his critics and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights assure that it deepens militarization and means a setback in matter of fundamental guarantees.
When the National Guard was created in 2019 “it was argued that it was going to be incorporated under a civilian command, that it was going to have a civilian character, as if it were a federal police force,” recalls lawyer Joan Ochoa, spokesperson for Uniendo Caminos México, the NGO that challenged the reform of the National Guard.
“However, since this institution was created, the command has been under a general, in retirement, yes, but finally under a military command. Although this is not illegal, and although the National Guard is made up of the extinct Federal Police, by elements of the Secretary of National Defense and the Navy, its character must be 100% civilian”, insists Joan Ochoa.
The lawyer clarifies that his organization is not against the existence of police operations with the help of the armed forces or the National Guard, “but not in the administrative part. There if it has to continue being civil, so that, at the time, in an accountability exercise, we can have access to the control of resources”. In short, “we have fought so that the laws do not allow the military to absorb the country’s security.”
On October 12, the Mexican Congress also approved a reform that extends the participation of the Army in security tasks until 2028.
Joan Ochoa acknowledges that “today there is no citizen in the Mexican Republic who considers that their municipal and state police have the capacity to deal with organized crime. It’s more than obvious.”
But although he considers that “both the National Guard and SEDENA are necessarily required to act together with these police forces to deal with organized crime, as citizens we feel more supported by the military.” The lawyer insists that “this institution (the National Guard) continue to be civilian as requested by the President (López Obrador) when this administration was formed.”
Ochoa argues that “militarizing the police can generate impunity.”
In addition to confirming the army as a key institution in maintaining order, López Obrador gave the Mexican Secretary of Defense a key role in the construction of public works: from hospitals, kindergartens, schools, to mega projects such as the Santa Lucía airport and a section of the controversial Mayan Train.
“At this stage, the Army and the Armed Forces are consolidating, but not because of authoritarianism,” López Obrador replied on October 25.
“They are consolidating themselves because of their greater ties to the people, to their origin, because the Mexican Army is part of deep Mexico and why are they becoming more linked? Because of the Army’s five missions there is one that was practically not carried out, which was that of contributing to the development of the country and that is the mission that is being put into practice like never before”, he stated in his morning press conference.
Joan Ochoa was interviewed by Orlando Torricelli.
