López Obrador defends the presence of the military in the streets of Mexico

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador acknowledged on Tuesday that he changed his mind about the role of the military in public security tasks when he came to power in December 2018.

“I had to face the problem of insecurity and I saw the seriousness of not having anyone to talk to,” he said during his morning press conference.

The comments come as the Senate is about to approve the National Guard, a civilian body, to become dependent on the head of the army and several opposition parties have called a protest against this initiative.

As an opposition leader, López Obrador had criticized the deployment of the armed forces in police work by the previous governments of the National Action Party and the Institutional Revolutionary Party.

The president explained this Tuesday that he had already considered relying on the military before becoming president, but that he finally decided in that regard because there were not enough operational elements to combat insecurity in the federal police, a body that he disintegrated because he considered it corrupt, and because the army and navy had more discipline and were, according to him, incorruptible.

In addition, he added, the government would not allow human rights violations, the main criticism of those opposed to having the army in the streets.

In the almost four years that he has been in government, the president has given more and more power and more functions to the armed forces and now he is about to see how the National Guard, a body that was created in his administration with a civilian character , comes under the Ministry of Defense although the constitution establishes that its command must be civilian.

The Chamber of Deputies has already voted in this regard and everything points to the Senate doing the same.

The constitution establishes that the National Guard must be a civilian body, although almost 80% of its current troops are military.

López Obrador tried to promote a constitutional reform so that it would pass into the hands of the Ministry of Defense, but since he did not have enough votes, he chose to propose changes in minor laws, for which the ruling party and its allies have a majority.

Various civil society groups have been denouncing for years the growing militarization of security tasks, something against which the UN has also spoken out.

The current government not only wants the National Guard to remain formally in the hands of the army, but also aspires to prolong the army’s permanence in public security tasks.

The opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party has been in favor.

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