Mexico's New Gendarmerie: Security Game Changer or Just Window Dressing? Patrick Corcoran - InSight Crime
go to original August 4, 2014

With Mexico preparing to launch one of President Enrique Peña Nieto's signature security initiatives - the gendarmerie - a new report questions whether the force can have a genuine impact on the country's security situation.

The report, The Debate over Security Policy, Democracy, and Human Rights: the Case of the New National Gendarmerie, was written by Miguel Moguel, a human rights expert at the think tank Fundar Mexico. Moguel examines the gendarmerie from top to bottom, focusing on its justification, the context in which it was launched, and challenges it has faced, ultimately settling on a list of problems complicating the agency's contributions to a safer Mexico.

The gendarmerie was first proposed during the Peña Nieto presidential campaign in 2012, as the years-long explosion in murders under Felipe Calderon was finally stabilizing. The timing and lack of justification for the need for a new police force smacked of a campaign gimmick, but Peña Nieto and his security team have continued in the pursuit of the creation of the gendarmerie in the years since. The force is expected to become active by the end of July 2014.

The gendarmerie was initially painted as an alternative to the armed forces being active in domestic security activities, and its creation was the first step toward lessening Mexico's reliance on the army and the Marines. As Peña Nieto himself said in support of his proposal, "it would imply the gradual withdrawal of the armed forces to their barracks". More recent reports indicate that the gendarmerie will have an explicit focus on protecting strategic regional industries.

Read the rest at Insight Crime

Photo: Flickr/Jesus Villaseca Perez

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