Morena, the party of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has taken the first decisive step in its goal of turning the National Guard (GN) into an appendage of the National Defense Secretariat (Sedena). The ruling party has once again used its legislative steamroller in the Chamber of Deputies to approve the constitutional reform without major setbacks, despite warnings from the small opposition that the amendment leads to militarizing public security. Morena and its allies from the PVEM and the PT have endorsed the reform this Thursday with 362 votes, a figure that far exceeds the requirement of two thirds – the qualified majority – to change the Constitution. The amendment, one of the most important for López Obrador, after the judicial one, implies that the National Guard, a police force originally created with a civil spirit, becomes a new Armed Force, on par with the Army, the Air Force and the Navy, and that it is led by a military division general.
The ruling party has finally overcome the counterweights that had, until now, held back the transfer of the GN to the Sedena. López Obrador, who in a matter of days will hand over power to his successor, Claudia Sheinbaum, has defended the need for the National Guard to remain under the control of the Army to guarantee the discipline, efficiency and incorruptibility of the 130,000 elements that make up this police force. The president has hammered home the example of the defunct Federal Police, predecessor of the GN, which he has described as incapable and corrupt.
In 2022, Morena attempted to complete the transfer of the National Guard to the Sedena through a fast-track reform of secondary laws; this strategy, which avoided the tortuous path of having to negotiate a constitutional amendment with the opposition, was invalidated by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN). Today, with the ruling party having an overwhelming qualified majority in the Chamber of Deputies after the June elections, López Obrador’s wish has finally been realized. The Supreme Court will not be a major obstacle this time, cornered as it is by the recently approved judicial reform.
The heart of this reform modifies Article 21 of the Magna Carta. In 2019, when Congress created the National Guard with the consensus of the opposition, it was included in the Constitution that the police force would have a civilian character and would be attached to the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection (SSPC), a department also of a civilian nature. Thursday’s amendment states that the GN will be a “professional, permanent public security force made up of personnel of military origin with police training,” which will depend on the “secretariat of the national defense branch,” that is, the Sedena.
To clarify the claims that the amendment means a militarization of security, it establishes that the SSPC will design the National Public Security Strategy, while the GN will only “execute” it. Another relevant change, which has caught the attention of analysts, is that the National Guard is granted new powers to investigate — and not just prosecute — crimes, on a par with prosecutors and police. The commander of the GN must be an active division general in the Army; he will be appointed by the Executive at the proposal of the head of the Sedena. It is foreseeable that this appointment will be in the hands of Sheinbaum.
In 2023, the Supreme Court reversed the legal changes sought by the ruling party, arguing that, according to the Constitution, public security should be in the hands of a civilian authority; that the GN should be under the command of the SSPC, and that the Armed Forces could only collaborate in public security tasks in an exceptional, complementary and always subordinate manner to civilian security institutions. Morena and its allies have managed to modify the Magna Carta to overcome these limitations.
The session in the Chamber of Deputies has taken place amid constant criticism from the opposition. Patricia Mercado, from MC, has pointed out that the reform “eliminates the few democratic controls of transparency, accountability and citizen participation” of the GN. Dolores Padierna, from Morena, has maintained that the members of the National Guard will be subject to civil, not military, justice in the event that they commit a crime. The Morena supporters have stressed the importance of the fact that, constitutionally, the supreme commander of the Armed Forces is the head of the Executive, in this case López Obrador and then Sheinbaum, and that none of them would be capable of abusing military power. They have also insisted that the military members of the GN must prove their training in respect for human rights. “There is not, and there will not be, militarization in Mexico, because we are in a new democratic regime, the regime of the Fourth Transformation,” said deputy Tatiana Ángeles.
The PAN members put aside self-criticism and omitted any admission of guilt for the government of Felipe Calderón (2006-2012), where the war on drugsthe strategy of frontal combat against the cartels with the Army and the Navy. Morena has refreshed their memory. “It is difficult to choose just one moment among the many that brought us to this debate,” said Padierna. “It could be that day in 2010 when a group of gunmen massacred a party of teenagers and young people in Ciudad Juárez, the day that Calderón said that the victims were gang members. […] In that period of terror that was Calderón’s six-year term, we have many days to choose from,” he added.
The PAN members also pointed to the inconsistency of the ruling party, showing images from the time when several Morena leaders – including López Obrador himself – spoke out against militarization, during their time as opposition members. “What a lack of memory, they have selective memory, because they don’t remember when they were tearing their clothes because of the presence of the military in the streets,” said PAN member Miguel Monraz. “This is the most violent government of the modern era,” he said, referring to the high number of homicides recorded under the current government. His group colleague Eva Vásquez seconded: “This has been the most violent six-year term in the history of Mexico.”
From the benches of Morena, the PT and the PVEM, the deputies responded with the war cry of the López Obrador movement: “It is an honor to be with Obrador!” They also cried out: “Long live the National Guard, long live the Armed Forces, long live Morena!” The MC legislators showed signs that read: “We want peace, not militarization.” Those from Morena went to the podium with signs in defense of the National Guard: “Capacity and discipline,” “Trust and honesty” and “GN = National protection.”
The deputies of the ruling party have pointed out that the reform corrects the “legal limbo” in which the military acted in public security tasks since Calderon’s administration. Ricardo Mejía, of the PT, has recognized that, in fact, the GN was already under the control of the Army. “Today it is about shielding this institution and providing it with a more solid constitutional and legal framework, unambiguous, direct and very clear. This reform formalizes a reality that already exists, the affiliation of the National Guard to the Sedena; with this, an institution with training, discipline, control and an unquestionable order is guaranteed,” he said. The ruling party has repeatedly brought up the name of Genaro García Luna, Calderón’s right-hand man in matters of fighting the cartels and who has been found guilty in the United States of drug trafficking. According to the Morena supporters, García Luna is the example of the deep corruption that gripped the Federal Police.
The opposition has criticized Morena for its “betrayal” of the 2019 promise that Mexico would have a security institution with civilian command. “Instead of correcting the course, they have decided to continue betting on the civic militarization of the country,” said PAN member Eva Vásquez. “This reform goes against the same promise with which the president won: to withdraw the Army from the streets. Now they are not only failing to return them to their barracks, but they are legislating to permanently maintain the Armed Forces in internal security tasks,” she added.
The approval of the reform of the National Guard has had a different fate than the amendment to the Judiciary. In the latter case, the opposition went beyond the legislative chamber and took to the streets to try to get Congress to meet. This time, the session to approve another of López Obrador’s far-reaching reforms went off without a hitch. Despite warnings from academic sectors and NGOs about the presence of soldiers in the streets, the leftist president has added another victory to his political agenda, before leaving office and retreating to rest at his farm in Chiapas, La Chingada.
Sign up for the free EL PAÍS Mexico newsletter and to WhatsApp channel and receive all the latest news on current events in this country.
#Mexico #begins #handing #National #Guard #Army #control