President Pena Nieto Launches New 'Gendarmerie' Police Force to Guard Commerce Joshua Partlow and Gabriela Martinez - The Washington Post
go to original August 22, 2014

The Mexico government has unveiled a new federal police force. They are known as Gendarmerie and its primary task will be to protect industries, businesses and farms that have been targeted by organized crime. CCTV America's Franc Contreras reports from Mexico City. (CCTV America)

MEXICO CITY — Mexican avocados, on their journey to guacamole bowls the world over, often first pass through cartel-controlled farmlands, where extortion can raise prices, drag down the economy and put farmers at risk.

The same goes for limes from Michoacan, sorghum from Tamaulipas, shrimp from Sinaloa.

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto was expected to announce the inauguration of a new police unit intended to protect the production chain and take on other unorthodox assignments.

Since his 2012 inauguration, Peña Nieto has sought to fulfill a campaign promise for a new police force to shore up law and order in Mexico. Over that time, the 5,000-man gendarmerie has changed shape and suffered delays in its inception.

The early concept was that the gendarmerie would be far larger and made up of military personnel. But now it has shrunk and been subsumed into the civilian federal police and will serve as one of its seven divisions.

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