Mexico City.- Senators Emilio Álvarez Icaza and Damián Zepeda warned that militarization will be accentuated in the Republic, after the virtual president-elect Claudia Sheinbaum announced that the National Guard will remain under the command of the Army.
The National Guard was created by presidential decree in 2019 with civilian command, however, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador insisted that it remain under military control without obtaining the votes to promote a constitutional reform.
Yesterday, Sheinbaum announced that this security body will be under the command of the Army as of October 1.
“The most delicate thing is not only the transfer of the National Guard to the Sedena, but it is the shielding of a model of militarization of the country’s public life. The most serious thing is that they modify article 129 of the Constitution, to establish the possibility of that the Armed Forces can intervene in the entire public administration based on the Constitution and the laws that emanate from it,” warned Álvarez Icaza.
The founder of the Plural Group said that the risk appears in the fact that President López Obrador and Sheinbaum have decided to make the militarization of public life a permanent and constitutional model.
“The counterpart to that is to increase the powers of the president in Article 89 and that is extraordinarily serious; of course the model of militarization of public security in itself is worrying, given the numbers and results. It seems that they have good numbers to boast about.” It seems that it is a successful model, when we have the Government with the most homicides in history, the administration with the most missing people and the most femicides in history. And the proposal is to continue with that,” he stressed.
“But that is not the worst: the most delicate thing is the modification to constitutional article 129 and article 89 that opens the door to the militarization of the country’s public life. The militarization deepens, worsens and is constitutionally structured.”
But for Álvarez Icaza it is not only about the militarization of public security but also the format of militarization by constitutional mandate.
“Because what 129 proposed in López Obrador’s reform says is that the Armed Forces can intervene in everything established by the Constitution and the laws that emanate from it. That not only constitutionalizes and legalizes what López Obrador has done improperly, but structurally deepens this model of militarization of the country’s public life,” he explained.
PAN member Damián Zepeda also expressed concern that the militarization of public life will be accentuated in the Government of Claudia Sheinbaum.
“This Government delivered more than 200 civil actions to the Armed Forces. We all respect the Armed Forces, the core of what the president says today (in his morning) is that the people support him and that this way he will not be fired to lose, but if the institutions are not spoiled by themselves, they are spoiled by the actions they are given and the lack of accountability,” he stated.
The former leader of the National Action Party considered that the next Government should lean towards a change in security strategy that understands that having a National Guard deployed will not reduce violence.
“The National Guard is only responsible for arrests in this country, but they are not fighting organized crime. With the National Guard deployed, more than 30 percent of the national territory is controlled by crime. And today it turns out that the announcement ‘ “It’s ‘let’s go for militarization’, well, what a disgrace for Mexico,” he considered.
In the opinion of the Sonoran legislator, yesterday’s announcement has made it clear that López Obrador is imposing his criteria on his successor.
“Each presidency has to put its seal on it, but today what I see is that before the new one arrives, the president, in these joint tours and announcements, is guaranteeing that he publicly commits to continuing with the seal of the current president,” he opined.
“I don’t see it as correct that in his last months he wants to mark the future of the country. I understand that it is a project of continuity, but hopefully prudence will win and these debates will take place in the incoming six-year term.”
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