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Americas|Mexican Senate Votes to Give Military Control of Civilian National Guard
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/25/world/americas/mexico-national-guard-military-control.html
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Mexico’s governing party says the guard would be more effective and less corrupt as part of the armed forces. Critics fear the increased militarization of civilian life and a spike in rights abuses.
Sept. 25, 2024, 8:04 p.m. ET
Mexico’s Senate on Wednesday approved a constitutional amendment that would put the country’s National Guard, created to fight crime, under the military’s control, deepening the penetration of the armed forces into another corner of civilian life.
The measure easily passed in the Senate, where the governing party holds a large majority. Those voting in favor argued that the National Guard would be more effective and less subject to corruption under military command, brushing aside arguments by opposition legislators that the move would make the military too powerful.
The Senate’s vote came less than two weeks after another major change was made to Mexico’s Constitution to remake the judiciary by having judges voted into office rather than appointed. Critics say both moves are examples of the government’s efforts to concentrate power in its hands.
For Mexico’s departing president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, whose term ends next week, Wednesday’s vote represented a major victory. He has long pushed for the military to take over the National Guard, something his successor, Claudia Sheinbaum, has also embraced.
“If it becomes, like the army and the air force, a branch of the Ministry of Defense, we have the guarantee that it will remain and will continue to act with rectitude,” Mr. López Obrador told reporters last week.
But the move was immediately met with criticism by human rights groups and security experts, who said it would cement in the Constitution the military’s control over policing and other aspects of public security and civilian life.
