Mexico: Citizen Security/ Seguridad Ciudadana

United Mexican States / Estados Unidos Mexicanos Democracy and Citizen Security Democracia y Seguridad Ciudadana

The numbers are scary. Nearly 2.500 people were estimated to have died in 2007 in Mexico as a result of clashes between drug gangs and government forces and only in the first five months of 2008, the number of killings was on the 1.000 mark[1]. Although Mexico does not stand alone in high homicide rates and other violence related indicators in the region, the expansion of drug cartels and the war waged by Felipe Calderón's government[2] against them has transformed the country in a virtual battle camp where the rule of law has constantly been challenged.

On May 9, for example, the Federal Police chief of operations, Edgar Millan, was assassinated in front of his house, in a clear sign of defiance by the drug cartels. Millan was just another name in a growing list of top officials that have been killed by drug networks determined to intimidate the government's offensive against the trafficking business. Such offensive started as soon as Calderón took office in December 2006, sending out thousands of Army soldiers to the main drug pockets of the country[3].

Since then, the government has scored important victories in its battle against the illicit drugs, capturing important drug leaders and extraditing them to the United States to be put on trial. However, the cartels' infiltration of customs in several airports and ports with the cooperation of officials has impaired the government efforts to stop the massive and profitable cargoes of drugs that flow in and out of the country. The involvement of the police in the drug business is another challenge for the government in its fight against the cartels. As some of the preliminary investigations show, although Edgar Millan's killing was paid by a drug cartel, a former police officer appears to have organized it.

The corruption within the police has made President Felipe Calderón to rely heavily on the Army to combat the drug cartels. Such strategy, however, has fomented some controversy, mainly the constitutional legality of using this force indefinitely for national security issues. Another point of discussion has to do with the lack of intelligence skills by the Army to effectively undermine the cartels. As pointed out by professor Victor Clark Alfaro, who teaches at the University of San Diego but lives in Tijuana, one of the most affected areas by the drug-related violence, any long-term solution should necessarily pass by intelligence work and not just a "show of force".[4]

The violation of human rights has also become an issue, especially on the part of the United States observations, which tied an aid package of U$1 billion (over three years) for the fight against the drug cartels in Mexico to the respect of human rights by the Army forces. Announced in October 2007 by presidents George Bush and Felipe Calderón, the so called "Merida Initiative" was supposed to be similar in scope to "Plan Colombia", the greatest aid given by the US to another country after Iraq and Afghanistan. However, the lost of congressional majority by Bush's Republican party and the fear by Congress representatives that trained Mexican Army personnel could defect to drug cartels and human rights violation has made the aid package to shrunk. As of June 2008, the US House of Representatives had approved U$400 million to Merida's first year (U$100 million less than asked by President Bush) but in the Senate the expectation was to approve only U$350 million.[5] In spite of that, the initiative will represent an important boost to Calderon's attempts to control the expansion of drugs cartel, providing financing for more sophisticated equipments and training besides fostering a joint intelligence work between US and Mexican officials.

While the news about violence in Mexico steams mostly from drug-related wars, analyst Ernesto López Portillo, from the Instituto para la Seguridad y Democracia (Insyde) emphasizes that the issue of violence and insecurity in Mexico is not necessarily linked to organized crime. According to him, the media has exploited the issue, creating a "distorted image of random violence when in fact it is restricted to warring groups".[6] Portillo points out, for example, that other types of violence, such as the domestic violence "is what has indeed grown", especially against women and children. One thing is certain, however: Mexicans are feeling increasingly insecure in their country and have little faith on the institutions charged with security to protect them. As showed by a poll done in 2005 by ICESI about insecurity, the perception of insecurity among Mexicans was 72,5, significantly higher than the 42 found in Colombia by the country's Chamber of Commerce in 2006. Also, as pointed out by Ernesto Cárdenas, another analyst for Insyde[7], eight out of ten Mexicans do not trust either the police corps or the Public Ministry.

Knowing that, Mexico's government has taken important steps to restore the confidence of the population in their institutions charged with security. In 2007, for example, the government launched the so called Comprehensive Strategy for Preventing and Combating Crime, which foresees reforms in both the police and the judicial system. As explained by Mexico's Secretary of Public Security, Genaro Garcia, as of today "there is no coordination among the 1.661 police corporations that operate in this country"[8]. As a federative country, Mexico has 31 states and a federal district with its own police force and most of the municipalities also have their own municipal police force. Such system has generated a lack of coordination among police actions to prevent and combat crime as well as overlapping functions. But as federal policewoman Reyna Ponce points out, with the reforms on the way (one of them is unifying the federal police), Mexico's government intends to create an institution that will attack crime "starting with prevention and investigation all the way through the indictment of criminals"[9]. This is certainly good news for Mexicans.

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[1] Oxford Analytica, "Mexico: Violence spirals in war on drugs", May 23, 2008. According to a report by Latinnews on May 28, at least 1.442 people have been killed in gang violence across Mexico in the first five months of the year. According to the report, May has been the worst month, with at least 370 deaths.
[2] Felipe Calderón is Mexico's president since 2006. His term ends in 2012.
http://repositories.cdlib.org/usmex/prajm/lopez_portillo
[3] For the main areas with concentration of drugs cartels, check the interactive map elaborated by the Mexican government and published by the newspaper El Universal, available at: http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/graficos/graficosanimados/EU_narco/default.html
[4] BBC News, "Battling Mexico's powerful drugs cartels", February 13, 2007. Available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/6313069.stm
[5] La Tribuna, "Cámara de Representantes autorizó ayuda antidrogas a México y Centroamérica", 10 de junio, 2008. Available at http://www.latribuna.hn/news/44/ARTICLE/35715/2008-06-10.html
[6] Mittrany, Carol, "Violence in Mexico: how much of it is media hype?", 27 August, 2007. Available at: http://www.comunidadsegura.org/?q=en/node/35888
[7] For more information on the work developed by Insyde, check its website at: http://www.insyde.org.mx/
[8] Botton, Shelley de, "Mexican Police: Unify to Optimize", 11 August, 2007. Available at: http://www.comunidadsegura.org/?q=en/node/37078
[9] Ibid, 2007

United Mexican States / Estados Unidos Mexicanos Democracy and Citizen Security Democracia y Seguridad Ciudadana

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