The transition team of Mexico's President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador presented the new National Peace And Security Plan 2018-2024, which aims to combat an increasing lack of security that started with the so-called “war on drugs,” to restore confidence in institutions. The plan was presented by Alfonso Durazo, the future security minister, and aims to “reformulate” the “war on drugs” with the implementation of different measures to pacify violence currently plaguing Mexico. The plan includes a conditional amnesty for certain crimes, and disarmament and reintegration programs as well as the creation of a 50,000-member National Guard, that will be trained by the army and the navy and put under the direct command of Lopez Obrador. “These are special laws to end the armed confrontations, make disarmament and handing over of the criminals possible, guaranteeing their rights and offering them reduction of sentences,” Durazo said during the presentation of the plan. “Even the possibility of amnesties conditioned by the pardon of affected individuals and groups, proposing them a change of life.” Durazo explained that it’s necessary to abandon the “fantasy” that insecurity and violence can be overcome with unique and unidimensional solutions such as the “repressive military” strategy. Instead, the minister-elect detailed that an alternative security plan needs to establish multidimensional and “radical” strategies aimed at the root of the crisis of violence that is affecting the country. The plan consists on the following eight points:
Durazo disclosed that the process could take up to three years. President-elect Lopez Obrador said that, in order for this plan to work, it’s necessary to end corruption and strengthen values. “One and a thousand times we’ve repeated, we can’t combat violence with violence,” he said during the presentation of the plan. Lopez Obrador promises a different approach to security by his government, but the proposed plan does not address the problems within the already existing security corporations. Some concerns have been raised regarding the proposed National Guard being trained by existing security institutions that have been accused of extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances, since the start of the war on drugs, as a consolidation of the military in the streets. Lopez Obrador acknowledged that he has found himself at a crossroads, stating that the federal police does not have the necessary training and staff to combat crime and additionally lack “professionalism and integrity.” “We had two options. At the end of the day, politics is choosing between inconvenient options, and a decision must be taken. Relying on the armed forces, that’s the decision we took,” Lopez Obrador said. Durazo argued that the current police corporations are not sufficiently prepared to confront organized crime and that it would be “disastrous” to suddenly remove the military from duties in public security. According to the president-elect, the concept of the National Guard already exists in the constitution and it was used during the United States and French military interventions in the 19th century. Mario Delgado, National Renewal Movement (Morena) coordinator of representatives, said that Mexico has not been able to recover peace or the rule of law in 12 years of the militarization of public security. However, he agreed that removing the officers from their duties would leave some regions “totally vulnerable to organized crime,” and that a regulated National Guard would fill the need to prevent and combat crime. But, at the same time, that would set a legal framework for a void found in the use of armed forces in public security duties, the coordinator explained. Mexico's so-called war on drugs, which has claimed numerous lives, began during the presidency of conservative Felipe Calderon. Lopez Obrador will take office on Dec. 1, but his Morena party has already taken over both legislative houses and implement many of the president-elect’s campaign promises. Source URL |