New Gendarmerie in Baja California; Crime-Fighting Focus Remains Unclear Sandra Dibble - The San Diego Union-Tribune
go to original September 7, 2014

Members of the newly created Gendarmerie Divsion of Mexico's Federal Police arrived in Tijuana last week. (Sergio Ortiz/Frontera)

TIJUANA — Even before taking office in December 2012, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto spoke of creating a national “gendarmerie” to help local police forces battle organized crime. Now nearly two years into his presidency, his administration has dispatched the first members of the newly created force to areas across Mexico.

Baja California is one of the first five states receiving the new officers, alongside Chiapas, Guanajuato, Jalisco and Tamaulipas. But their arrival in Tijuana last week has prompted questions: Exactly how many are here, where precisely have they been assigned, and what will be their role?

“I don’t understand the agenda of the Gendarmería Nacional,” said Juan Manuel Hernández, head of the Tijuana umbrella group known as the Business Coordinating Council, which monitors security conditions in the region. “We have heard that not even the government knew that they was coming.”

In introducing the new force on Aug. 22, Peña Nieto said the Gendarmería would “contribute to the protection of Mexicans, their goods and sources of employment when these are being threatened by crime.” The group’s mission, the president said, is to “strengthen the local public safety institutions, safeguard production cycles in cities and states where this is required.”

Read the rest at The San Diego Union-Tribune

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