Chilpancingo, Guerrero - Guerrero State Public Security Secretary, Javier Lara Montellanos, announced the transformation of the police system in the state: it will imitate operating techniques developed by community police and self-defense groups.
The retired admiral and former commander of the Eighth Naval District noted that in this way the state government intends to "regain society's trust" and to monitor areas where there is a complete absence of authority by means of a police force "close to the people."
Lara Montellanos responded to employers in the capital, gathered in the Employers' Confederation of the Mexican Republic (COPARMEX), who yesterday denounced the lack of confidence in government authorities because Chilpancingo's society finds itself "hijacked and suffocated" by the crime and corruption that has been "tolerated and encouraged" by the state and municipal governments led by [Governor] Ángel Aguirre Rivero and [Deputy] Mario Moreno Arcos [federal Chamber of Deputies].
Therefore, representatives of the business sector in the capital sought help, and they expressed their support for Mixtec activist Bruno Plácido Valerio, who heads the Union of Peoples and Organizations of the State of Guerrero (UPOEG); and for the self-defense groups that emerged this year in the Costa Chica region and that have spread to the rural area of Acapulco and the Center region to assume security functions in the absence of or faced with the complicity of authorities with criminal groups.
In a conference held at the official residence of the governor, Casa Guerrero, the Secretary of State Public Security criticized the attitude of the members of COPARMEX in this capital.
"Before you (entrepreneurs) go with the UPOEG, you ought to have come with us. This is precisely why we are proposing a new system of state security in order to tell you: 'Gentlemen, we are working, and we want your support'," reproached the recently appointed state official.Lara Montellanos called illegal the fact that the armed wing of the UPOEG is found assuming security features in Acapulco and in the municipality of John R. Escudero, because "they are outside their jurisdiction," he said in reference to State Law 701, which recognizes the right of indigenous people to create their own security and justice system in municipalities with majority indigenous populations.
The Secretary of Security said the new security system will be called State Force; it will be governed under a 'single command' and implemented unilaterally and progressively in the state's 81 municipalities.
State Force has begun operating, he said, in the municipalities of Iguala and Acapulco, where the State Preventive Police are assuming operational control of the municipal police, and city officials will maintain administrative management of their uniformed officers, the state official explained.
In this way, he declared, the state government implements the single police command in the state, but he admitted that even this measure has not yet been agreed upon by the majority of the state's 81 mayors.
"The conflict that comes with the mayors is regarding the management of Branch 33 resources allocated for Public Security, but we are not going to touch those resources. The mayors will continue to administer [pay] their police, we (state government) are going to train and supervise their operation," he said.Lara Castellanos said they have perceived a "lack of security and surveillance" in the municipalities. Therefore, the State Force will assume security in the communities by "contracting rural police" who will be appointed by the municipal commissioners.
Lara Castellanos admitted that the security project proposed by Governor Ángel Aguirre Rivero copies the security scheme driven by self-defense groups and community police officers. In that regard, he said:
"It is about respecting the actions of the UPOEG and the Regional Coordinating Committee of Community Authorities (CRAC), and we are going to the areas that are our responsibility."Spanish original