In the face of the lack of integrity and professionalism in the Federal Police , municipal and state corporations , Andrés Manuel López Obrador is looking to create the National Guard , so the Armed Forces have the legal support to carry out security operations in the country and are commanded by the Ministry of Defense (Sedena).
The National Guard , similar to the military forces in Spain and France , is the key element of the National Peace and Security Plan 2018-2024 presented by the President-elect . The plans look to pacify the country through 8 actions:
1. To eradicate corruption and reactive the administration of justice
2. To guarantee employment , education , health , and well being
3. Respect and promotion of human rights
4. Ethical regeneration of society
6. Reformulate the fight against drugs , start the construction of peace
7. Recovery and dignifying
8. Public security plan
During a press conference, López Obrador explained that they will propose a reform to the Constitution , and ask Congress to modify the terms of the 15th fraction of the 76th constitutional article and other legal provisions, with the purpose of creating the National Guard as a key instrument of the executive branch to prevent crime , preserve public security, recover peace , and fight crime .
He explained that the Federal Police was created to guarantee security , without the intervention of the Navy and the Army , but currently, that corporation hasn't been fully consolidated, “where, with admirable exceptions, there is a lack of professionalism and integrity, the same with municipal police, ministerial police, and state police.”
The National Guard will be part of the Sedena and will look to solve legal voids, so the armed corporations are able to carry out supervisory functions , explained Alfonso Durazo , the future Public Security Minister , who recognized that “it would be disastrous to take the Armed Forces out of public security.”
The future Defense Minister , and who will be in charge of the National Guard, Luis Cresencio Sandoval , explained that the National Guard will be formed my soldiers, members of the Navy police, and the Federal Police , also, they established a period of three years for it to fulfill its operation.
Human rights
Among the reforms proposed by the incoming government, as explained by Durazo , is one that would grant human rights commissions more faculties, so their recommendations aren't ignored by authorities.
“Through the legal means available, the release on those who, without having committed any violent actions are in prison thanks to political motivations will be promoted, as well as the prevention of allegations and criminal cases originated by their participation in legal and pacific resistance.”
Decriminalizing drugs
The project also includes the creation of the Council for the Construction of Peace , and to move the drug policy away from the prohibition focus.
According to the document, the government's prohibition of narcotic substances “is, from any angle, unsustainable.”
The strategy presented yesterday explains that “the inevitable alternative is that the government renounces its attempt to fight addictions through the persecution of the substances that create addictions,” and control the addictions of those who already have one, through medical help.
Moreover, the new security plan focuses, besides the military participation, on social development, such as scholarships and jobs for the young which is, according to the President-elect, 80% of the “causes that originate insecurity and violence .”
You can read the whole document here.
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