The president of Coparmex, Salvador Carrejo Orozco, expressed his surprise at the vote in favor of the reform of the National Guard by the PAN bench in the State Congress, with the exception of deputy Jorge Soto, as well as for the expression of a local business body that endorses the constitutional modification, which he attributed to ignorance of the possible risks and implications that this will have for citizens.
The employer leader explained that the scope of this reform assigns the training, operational, administrative control and military jurisdiction of the National Guard to the Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena), which implies various risks.
He clarified that it is not about distrusting the Mexican Army, which has a clear mandate which is the protection of national sovereignty and to comply with this it receives training for war, because that is its nature and that is how it should be, like any army. of the world.
“Their formation, training, equipment, discipline, chain of command, internal justice, controls and administration are consistent with their nature and that is not bad… that is how it should be,” he said.
Meanwhile, he added, public security is a completely different area, it requires another type of training, equipment and, above all, the way in which it interacts with citizens.
Historically, he noted, military intervention in public security tasks has been associated with cases of abuse and violation of human rights.
“We have seen with sadness, here in our state of Chihuahua, violations of human rights, including the cost of human lives of innocent civilians. How is it possible that our local deputies endorse this change? How is it possible for business actors to give the “benefit of the doubt”, when this confusion of roles of our security forces has cost the lives of Chihuahuans?” he questioned.
With this reform, he said, the door opens to a militarization of security functions, an approach that could generate significant risks in terms of possible violations of human rights and limit access to justice for citizens.
Likewise, he added, it moves away from a democratic state and paves the way towards an authoritarian regime.
The militarization of public security, he mentioned, contradicts constitutional and even international provisions that establish the civilian nature of the security forces.
This reform, he explained, contradicts several articles of the Mexican Constitution, in particular article 129, which limits military participation in peacetime, and article 13, which restricts military jurisdiction to matters strictly related to military personnel in acts of service.
“By approving a measure that challenges these constitutional principles, legal uncertainty is generated, weakening trust in institutions and affecting the environment necessary for the country’s economic growth and development,” he stressed.
Carrejo Orozco pointed out that the wording of Constitutional Article 21 is of concern, since it is essential that Mexico maintain a clear separation between the forces in charge of public security and the institutions responsible for the investigation and prosecution of crimes.
In this sense, he said, the independence of the Public Ministry and respect for human rights must be a central pillar of any security policy in the country and the recent proposal for constitutional reform that will allow the National Guard to collaborate in investigations with the Ministries Public is a worrying sign of the growing militarization of civil functions in Mexico, putting the balance of powers and the justice system at risk.
“In specific scenarios, I ask those who support this modification: What will they tell us when the National Guard commits a violation of human rights and relies on the “national security” criterion that is allowed to the Army? “Where will the rights and freedoms of the affected people be?” he said.
He also questioned, “what will they tell us, that when an abuse is committed by the National Guard the matter is heard by a military court (by nature opaque) and not by a civil court? What will they tell us when we demand transparency in the operation and spending of the National Guard, but for the same reasons of “national security” we are denied such information?”
The business leader explained that none of this is unrelated to what is happening today, such as opaque infrastructure works (refinery, Mayan Train, etc.), protected by the same national security criteria, to avoid accountability.
Now, he said, public security will be able to have the same “privilege” for the Government.
He said that the fight against organized crime should not be confused with public security, since in the first case the role of the Army is necessary and fundamental, simply by equating the state of force to confront these groups. But, he reiterated, this cannot be confused with public safety issues.
He added that, if public security issues are to be resolved, what must be done is to strengthen the municipal police, the state police, the prosecutor’s offices and public ministries with budget, training and technology. “The militarization of public security is the easy way out, which could have a high cost for the democratic life of our country,” he lamented.
“There is talk about the Army taking care of tourists. Let’s imagine that we arrive at a tourist place and that instead of having police officers we have soldiers with high-powered weapons. What would we think of that place? “Is it going to give us a feeling of security?” he added.
Finally, regarding the approval of this reform by the State Congress, he maintained that the only thing it confirms is that the last line of defense against an authoritarian regime is the organized citizens themselves, since political parties and governments will carry out their negotiations to take care of their rights. interests and preserve their spaces of power. “The interests of the citizens are not in their priorities,” he lamented.
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