The Congress of Mexico has approved a constitutional reform that allows the armed forces to continue carrying out national police duties until 2028.
Putting soldiers on the streets to fight crime has long been seen as a makeshift measure to combat drug gang violence, and lawmakers previously said civilian policing should have taken on such duties by 2024.
But President Andrés Manuel López Obrador claims he relies on the military indefinitely because he considers the military to be more honest. The president has given the military more responsibility than any other recent Mexican leader.
The reform backed by López Obrador passed the lower house on Wednesday and has yet to be approved by a majority of Mexico’s 32 state legislatures.
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Most experts agree that Mexico needs a better paid, trained and equipped civilian police. The army and marines were called in to help local police forces in 2006 in their fight against the country’s well-armed drug cartels. Mexico’s state and municipal police are often corrupt, poorly trained and unprofessional.
But López Obrador relied almost exclusively on the military for law enforcement. He eliminated the civilian federal police and created the National Guard, which he now wants to hand over completely to the Department of Defense.
López Obrador has relied on the military for everything from building infrastructure projects to running airports and trains.
The reform that extends the military mandate also promises to restore some funds to improve state and local police forces, which López Obrador cut short after taking office in December 2018.
However, the new measure – already approved by the Senate – does not specify how much funding will be provided to improve the civil police, other than to say that it cannot be less than the annual increase in funding granted to the military and the National Guard.
Indeed, according to a bill passed this week by the lower house, much of that funding would come from the government confiscating national bank accounts if they remained intact for six years or more.
Soldiers patrol after a mass shooting that killed 20 people in San Miguel Totolapan, Mexico on October 6, 2022. Mexico passed a constitutional reform that extends the military’s use for public safety until 2028.
(Photo AP / Eduardo Verdugo, File)
But on Thursday, López Obrador said he was against giving that money to the police as well, saying it “should be for the disabled, the elderly, health care.”
Hungry for money, many local police forces are in a precarious state, with poorly paid policemen working round-the-clock shifts and having to purchase their own equipment or uniforms.
“We have seen in the south, southeast of Mexico many of them are not even wearing uniforms; they are wearing a white T-shirt and boots that they have to buy themselves,” said Magda Ramírez, a researcher with the Mexico Evalua civic group.
“There is no funding even to buy essential things like body armor or equipment,” he noted. Even in the best-funded police departments – and there are a few, especially in northern Mexico – police officers often have to repair their patrol vehicles.
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“Okay, maybe you have a uniform and a flak jacket, but you’re fixing your patrol car. You’re a policeman, not a mechanic,” Ramírez said.
Critics note that the military is not trained for police work and does little investigation. The armed forces were accused of human rights violations while carrying out police duties.
But polls have found that most Mexicans trust the military more than the local police and want the army and navy to continue policing. This is not surprising given the poor state of most of the police force they have seen; but most Mexicans were never given a choice between good and efficient police and soldiers.
Problems with law enforcement in Mexico are unlikely to be solved by the military or the militarized National Guard, said security expert Alejandro Hope.
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“Crimes are not reported. When they are reported, they are not investigated. When they are investigated, they are not properly prosecuted,” said Hope, noting that none of this will be solved by “a military force that carries out patrols, but does not investigate.” .
For example, the National Guard has approximately 118,000 officers and the Mexican Army and Navy have approximately 140,000 deployable troops. “There are 400,000 local policemen – that’s where the efforts should be focused,” Hope said.
