The Mexican Senate unanimously approved the creation of the National Guard after modifing it a lot.
The quick recap of the ten constitutional amendments they approved is that a new federal law enforcment agency, with military training but civilian command, will be created. Which is exactly the same as the gendarmerie but don’t tell the senators.
Most importantly members of the national guard will be judged as civilans, not as members of the military, if they commit a crime.
This new agency will adhere to the human rights pettitions made by the UN, and NGOs across the world after a fierce battle began over how it will be funded and who’d run it began in December.
Also important is that, unlike the Domestic Security Law, the intervention of the National Guard on local and state policing has to be approved by the local governments. It’s also worth mentioning that the federal government has no more than five years to remove the military from law enforcement efforts, and state governments have 180 days to present a summary of their law enforcement capacities to the congress.
Which means that by 2024 soldiers will be forced to return to their bases, eighteen years after -then- President Calderon began the war on drugs and using the armed forces to fight violent crime.
This is really good news, as the previous version of the national guard was barbaric and autoritarian, but it’s not over yet. The House still needs to approve it and the President said that he would probably veto the national guard as it has been suggested by the senate. Obrador wants the national guard to have a military command.
On the other hand, January was the most violent month registered, almost all states reported more crimes. In the case of Mexico City, some crimes went up eighty percent from January of 2018.
So... mixed bag I guess.