Politcs: Back to the Barracks?

MEXICO - Report 21 Dec 2016 by Guillermo Valdes and Esteban Manteca

In recent weeks National Defense Minister General Salvador Cienfuegos once again publicly vented the military high command’s frustration in recent years over the government’s failure to pass an internal security law that would provide legal protections to military personnel that have been pressed into the fight against organized crime.

Such proposals have met resistance from both civilian authorities and human rights organizations, which view them as an attempt to perpetuate the participation of the Armed Forces in crime-fighting activities. That opposition helped to derail an internal security bill in 2011, but the dominant parties in Congress appear to have decided to push through such legislation as early as January; passage might reassure the Armed Forces, but would not solve the key problem.

The obvious way out of this dilemma is to train and build police forces and a judicial system capable of taking responsibility for public security and justice, but the military’s assumption of policing tasks over the past decade acts as a major disincentive for local and state political actors to build up their own crime-fighting capacities and institutions.

If the Armed Forces are not to return to their barracks in the foreseeable future, policies are needed to strengthen civilian control over the military apparatus. And this implies a thorough-going reform of the Armed Forces. For starters, there should be a single defense ministry with both military and civilian personnel, and a civilian with military support to head that ministry.

All of these proposals require major budgetary outlays. Between 2006 and 2012, the budget for security, defense, and the administration of justice doubled in real terms (but then stagnated between 2013 and 2016). It is likely that the budget will have to double again to begin to meet the country’s needs.

In conclusion, General Cienfuegos pointed to a real problem. The adoption of legislation on internal security would indeed be a step in the right direction, but would do nothing to make the country stop depending on the Armed Forces to perform tasks that are the responsibility of the police. Building competent public security institutions is the main challenge.

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