six days of his inauguration, López Obrador has called an unprecedented meeting with personnel of the Army and the Navy in the military installations of Mexico City to announce that it will become a key part of the fight against violence. Before an audience of some 30,000 uniformed officers —this is the first time that an elected president is addressing the troops— has also insisted on the need to create the new body of military provisions, the National Guard. The advertisement represents a statement of intentions for the next six years of Government. Far from sending the military to the barracks, as he had pointed out during the campaign, has given the mission more transcendent of its legislature: the security of a country that lives the worst figures of violence in its history.
MORE INFORMATION Lopez Obrador will reform the Constitution to create the National Guard More than 11 hours tortured sexually by soldiers of the Marine in Mexico through the period’s most bloody of his history
“I’ve Come to ask your support, not to impose anything, since then it could be an order, but we’re not going to impose anything (…) I Am sure that I will have the support of you because your families, yourselves, know that we have the problem of insecurity and violence,” he said. According to the latest figures of the ministry of the Interior (Interior), in Mexico have been killed 27.792 people from January to October, more than 76 intentional homicides per day. And all indications are that this year will be close to a new record of violence. In the past year were killed 31.174 people —the vast majority gun— 27% more than in 2016, and more than double that of just eight years. The figures alert about the delicate situation facing the country, more serious than in the years where the dead counted in the dozens each day, where the front pages of the national newspapers proclaimed the great slaughter and the data of 2011 —in the middle of the war against the drug— scandalized the entire nation.
Lopez Obrador announced during his campaign that the military would return to barracks. This was due to the amount of human rights violations committed by the Military during the open Marsbahis conflict against organized crime —decree in 2006, which still continues and which has claimed the lives of more than 200,000 people and has left tens of thousands of people missing—. The National Human Rights Commission has issued since 2014 six recommendations to the Army and the Navy for documented cases of torture, sexual violence, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance and extrajudicial executions.
But he and his team have changed positions in the last few months, justifying the crisis of insecurity the country is experiencing. Two weeks ago, the president-elect announced the creation of a new military corps, the National Guard, in charge of this mission for the next six years of Government. A group subjected to the hierarchy of the Armed Forces. Your head will be the president of the Government, followed closely by his Security secretary, Alfonso Durazo. But the operational command, the day-to-day, will be the responsibility of the secretary of Defense, a military. After listening to her announcement, the organizations of defense of human rights sharply criticized the measure and warned about the risks of “militarize” even more to the country. From his party, Brunette, insisted these weeks to shake off the demons: the National Guard will not be like the Army.
“that is what we are proposing: no flip, no longer walk with simulations. And, why defend it? Because it is a very serious situation. I am proposing this because I trust the Army and the Navy, because they are the people in uniform,” he insisted this Sunday, López Obrador to the troops. And has reinforced its proposal: “we will Create a force joining the military Police, naval, federal. This would mean to have three or four times more elements than there are now. (…) So, with all clarity, we are presenting an amendment to the Constitution so that the National Guard be able to deal with tasks of public safety.” Brown, who has the majority in the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, presented last Tuesday an initiative to reform the Magna Carta, and to facilitate the legal reserves of the new safety body.
To finish, has stressed its support to the Armed Forces, as the next key piece that ensures the solution that the country needs about security: “I Know whence comes this Army and I have confidence. And, in case outside little, is an Army nationalist who has never been subordinated to any foreign government. I acknowledge their professionalism”.
