Translated by Samantha Lisk
Representatives from civil organizations that met during the week with the Secretary of Government Relations [SEGOB], Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong, concluded their meeting by questioning the situation of prevailing insecurity in the nation and affirmed that the drop in the indicators of violence doesn't mean an effective change to stop the waves of criminals.
It was against this background that they posed the necessity of creating an auditor for the Federal Police and of having control of the systematization of information before considering the creation of new bodies such as the national gendarmerie.
According to sources, the speakers placed emphasis on the announcement indicating the level of voluntary manslaughters linked to federal crimes (almost 1,000 per month during the first term of Enrique Peña Nieto’s administration). They demanded effective mechanisms for verifying the figures given out monthly by the federal government, as well as tools for auditing resources and operations for combating crime.
In the days prior to the meeting with social organizations, which was held on Friday, Secretary Osorio Chong had announced that he would consult with non-governmental groups in order to define the structure and operation of the national gendarmerie, one of the projects of Peña’s administration for strengthening security. It is to be a special group of federal forces, particularly for rural zones affected by acts of organized crime.
However, this first meeting, at least, was limited to representatives from no more than five groups that had participated in governmental projects during the past administration, such as Isabel Miranda de Wallace, Alejandra Martí, and Elena Morera, among others.
In this regard, Édgar Cortez, investigator for the Mexican Institute of Democracy and Human Rights, lamented that other organizations that remained outside, which, he said, could be interpreted as an exclusion of those who have different points of view regarding the strategy of federal security.
[In March], a group of civil organizations signed a letter demanding that a meeting be held to discuss the gendarmerie, in particular that it might be created based on a law and not on a presidential decree.
“I interpret the lack of an invitation as a way to limit the idea of the nonprofit organization to only certain groups, which excludes others that fight in order to see the subject of security from the perspective of human rights. There is the risk of making meetings in which, instead of listening to all perspectives, including contrary ones, they are not even consulted,” noted Cortez.Before the meeting, the press announcement noted that the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity had also been invited to the meeting with Osorio Chong, but at least three members of the organization denied this version.
In a radio interview, Osorio Chong said that the gendarmerie would not replace the Federal Police but would instead be a division of it. Additionally, its members would have military and police preparation, including the perspective that they are also investigators of crime.
He emphasized that the gendarmerie will begin operation—on an undetermined date—with 5,000 members and under civilian command and that it will go where there are the greatest security problems and where the local police are weakest. Spanish original