Mexico’s Congress places National Guard under military command despite criticism. Why is it important?

MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s Senate on Wednesday voted to place the National Guard under the command of the military, despite widespread criticism over the further militarization of the country.

It is the second constitutional amendment in two weeks, marking another victory for outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador just days before he leaves office. On September 11, Congress passed a controversial judicial reform he pushed through that forces all of the country’s judges to run for office, raising concerns about the politicization of the judiciary.

After a night of debate, the ruling Morena party and its allies overcame opposition fueled by concerns from human rights groups and the United Nations. They denied that the change would militarize the country, saying instead that the military would help the National Guard become a more effective security force.

When López Obrador took office in December 2018, there was hope — buoyed by his own remarks — that he would send the military back to the barracks after years of battling powerful drug cartels. Now, at the end of his six-year term, the military will not only remain on the streets, but will now command the 120,000-strong National Guard.

The National Guard was created and sold to Mexicans in 2019 as a civilian security force under the control of the Ministry of Public Security. There were immediate doubts because many of its members originally came from the military police and its command structure was largely made up of recently retired military officers.

The president had previously attempted to place the National Guard under military command, but the Supreme Court last year ruled this unconstitutional.

The president, like previous administrations, needed the military in the face of the staggering levels of violence. The police were under-armed and infiltrated by drug cartels. He had envisioned the National Guard as a civilian force that would unleash the military in 2024. Instead, he has placed the National Guard under military command and expanded the legal justification for keeping soldiers on the streets.

López Obrador says the military is trustworthy and not corrupt. At the same time, he railed against the Federal Police as deeply corrupt and irredeemable before disbanding them. There have been cases of military corruption — the U.S. government arrested the former defense minister before López Obrador persuaded the U.S. to return him.

In addition to public safety, López Obrador has given the armed forces unprecedented responsibilities, including managing airports, ports, customs, an airline and building a tourist train around the Yucatán Peninsula.

“It’s a regression and an implosion in terms of security, but also of human rights,” said Mexican political scientist Ana Vanessa Cardenas, a researcher at the International Affairs Observatory at Finis Terrae University in Chile. While police officers are trained to guarantee rights, soldiers are trained to fight external enemies who do not have the same rights as citizens, she said.

“I believe this change, together with what we have just seen with the justice reform, leaves citizens completely vulnerable,” she said.

Critics say the military is an inherently opaque and protected institution in Mexico. Shifting more responsibilities to the military further reduces government transparency.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a statement before the vote on Tuesday that its experts were concerned the change could lead to more enforced disappearances and impunity. The Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Human Rights Center in Mexico warned it would be a step toward militarization from which there would be no way back.

Senator Luis Donaldo Colosio of the opposition Civic Movement party said giving military control over the National Guard instead of turning it into a true civilian police force normalized the idea that Mexico must be under military control to achieve peace.

Security analyst David Saucedo said the change is “just the formalization of something that already existed de facto.”

And the National Guard has not been effective in reducing the level of violence because the way it operates “is nothing more than a deterrent presence, patrols and base building.” It does not investigate, has no intelligence or even directly confront criminal cells, he said.

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AP reporter Christopher Sherman in Mexico City contributed to this report.