Proposed Law in Mexico Could Expand Military Role in War on Drugs Deborah Bonello - InSight Crime
go to original November 28, 2016

A masked Mexican soldier patrols the streets of Veracruz (Yuri Cortez/AFP/Getty Images)

A new law up for debate in Mexico's lower house proposes to expand and regulate the role of the military in the country's decade-long drug war, a red flag to critics of the controversial militarized crackdown against cartels.

When presenting the new initiative, one of the representatives in favor of it - Martha Sofía Tamayo Morales - acknowledged that Mexico's armed forces have become "the main resource" in confronting organized crime and national security issues, but that "it's efficiency has been limited due to the lack of an adequate legal framework...particularly during its peacetime role."

The proposed Internal Security Law, put forward by representatives from Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), recommends that the military begin to provide intelligence to the Mexican government and its internal security branches, which would be a new development should the initiative be made law.

A new internal group would be formed by people from different parts of government to make decisions on when to implement new special measures that the president could set in motion to restore "internal order" within an institution or geographical area of the country.

In theory, the new initiative proposes making the armed forces the last, not first, resort in security matters after all other branches of law enforcement - the municipal, state and federal police as well as the new gendarmerie - have proved "insufficient in confronting the threat."

It would also mandate more accountability by requiring that the federal government be informed of all of the actions taken by the armed forces in its internal security role, as well as the publication of a regular report on the issue.

Read the rest at InSight Crime

Related: UN Representative for the Office on Drugs and Crime in Mexico Says Security Must be Handled by Civilians, Not Armed Forces (The News)

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