President Of Mexico To Bypass Congress To Keep Military On Streets, #Mexico #president #bypass #congress #army #streets Welcome to OLASMEDIA TV NEWSThis is what we have for you today:
MEXICO CITY (AP) – Mexico’s president has begun investigating plans to bypass congress to hand over formal control of the National Guard to the military, a move that could jeopardize the military’s control of the police. a country could expand violently.
That has raised concerns as President Andrés Manuel López Obrador received approval in 2019 to create the force by promising in the constitution that it would be under nominal civilian control and that the military would be off the streets by 2024.
However, neither the National Guard nor the military have succeeded in reducing insecurity in the country. Over the past week, drug cartels carried out widespread arson and shooting attacks, scaring civilians in three major northwest cities in a daring challenge to the state.
Still, López Obrador wants to keep soldiers involved in policing and take civilian control of the National Guard, whose officers and commanders are mostly soldiers, with military training and remove pay scales.
But the president no longer has the votes in Congress to change the constitution and has suggested he can try it as a regulatory change with a simple majority in Congress or by executive order and see if the courts will enforce that.
López Obrador warned Friday against politicking the issue, saying the military is needed to fight Mexico’s violent drug cartels. But then he immediately politicized it himself.
“A constitutional reform would be ideal, but we have to look for ways, because instead of helping us, they (the opposition) are blocking us, the intention is to stop us from doing anything,” said López Obrador.
The two main opposition parties also had different positions when in power. They supported the military in public security roles during their respective governments, beginning in 2006 and 2012.
When López Obrador ran for president, he called for the military to be taken off the streets. But being in power — and seeing murders at the highest sustained level ever — apparently changed his mind.
He relied heavily on the military, not just for crime-fighting. He views the military and navy as heroic, patriotic and less bribery, and has entrusted them with building major infrastructure projects, running airports and trains, stopping migrants and overseeing customs in seaports.
The Mexican military has been closely involved with the police since the start of the drug war in 2006. But his presence was always considered temporary, a stopover until Mexico could build reliable police forces.
López Obrador seems to have abandoned that plan, instead making military and quasi-military forces such as the National Guard the main solution. “Their mandate should be extended,” he said.
“I think it’s best for the National Guard to be a branch of the Ministry of Defense to give it stability over time and prevent it from being damaged,” he said. He also wants the military and navy to help beyond 2024, the current dateline set in an executive order for 2020.
The force has grown to 115,000, but almost 80% of the personnel came from the ranks of the military.
The United Nations and human rights organizations have long expressed reservations about letting the military do policing. and Mexico’s Supreme Court has yet to rule on several appeals against what critics say are unconstitutional duties entrusted to the National Guard.
The office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said last week that militarizing civilian institutions, such as the police, weakens democracy. Soldiers are not trained for that, the military is not naturally open to scrutiny, it is involved in human rights violations and the presence of troops has not solved the pressing question of how to reform police, prosecutors and courts.
While López Obrador claims that human rights violations are no longer tolerated, the government’s National Human Rights Commission has received more than a thousand complaints about alleged violations by the National Guard. The agency made five recommendations in cases where there was evidence of excessive use of force, torture or abuse of migrants.
“The problem with using the military in civilian roles is that we have no control over what goes on inside the armed forces,” said Ana Lorena Delgadillo, director of the community group Foundation For Justice.
Delgadillo said placing the National Guard under the Defense Department, despite constitutional language defining it as a civilian-led force, is “authoritarian,” will be challenged in court and will not help pacify the country.
The Mexican employers’ association, Coparmex, said in a statement that the capabilities of the state police should be strengthened instead. “It is they and the (public) prosecutor’s offices that are authorized to deal with the civilian population,” the group said.
Perhaps more to the point, the quasi-military National Guard has failed to bring down Mexico’s stubbornly high homicide rate.
Sofía de Robina, a lawyer for the Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Human Rights Center, said the National Guard has “failed to reduce violence”, in part because of its military strategy to “occupy territory”.
While that strategy – of building barracks and conducting regular patrols – may be helpful in remote or rural areas, it has proved less useful and has even drawn opposition in urban areas.
The police, who come from the towns they serve and live among residents, would be more effective, experts say. But widespread corruption, poor wages and threats by cartels against police officers have weakened local and national police forces.
More than 15 years of military experience in police functions has “shown the falsity of the paradigm that the military would solve the problems,” Delgadillo said.
De Robina added that López Obrador’s latest move involves trying to keep the military to the police indefinitely, “completely defying the obligation to let public security be civilian” with no restrictions in time or strategy.