PAN Presidential Candidate: Mexico Must Pay Police Much More to End Violence Dave Graham and Adriana Barrera - Reuters
go to original July 28, 2017

Luis Ernesto Derbez, a former top diplomat running for the presidency, speaks during an interview with Reuters in Mexico City (Reuters)

Mexico must significantly improve police pay and conditions to end chronic drug gang violence plaguing the country, said a former foreign minister now running for the presidency.

Latin America's second biggest economy is on course to register its highest murder tally this year since modern records began, with violence encroaching into areas relatively unaffected before, including the capital, Mexico City.

Presidential candidate Luis Ernesto Derbez, who was economy minister and then foreign minister in the 2000-2006 administration of Vicente Fox, said Mexico must crack down on rampant impunity and overhaul the police to turn the tide.

"My proposal is to pay them 25,000 pesos ($1,410) a month," he told Reuters in an interview late on Wednesday, giving the figure as a minimum starting level for police. "A respectable police officer needs a respectable salary."

A government report from May 2016 showed average entry-level pay for a state police officer was 10,434 pesos ($588) a month, although some in poorer states earned as little as 5,350 pesos.

Derbez is a long shot to win the July 2018 contest, having stepped back from politics after holding office, and only recently announcing his intention to seek the candidacy of the opposition center-right National Action Party (PAN).

His proposal is likely to stir debate on how to end the bloodshed staining Mexico's reputation.

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