He study of the Observatory of the National Guard and Militarization in Mexicopublished on July 31, indicates that through a request for information, it was possible to verify the gradual increase in elements of the National Guard since its birth in 2019.
The document states that in 2019, 74,437 uniformed personnel were assigned, mainly from the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of the Mexican Navy, to carry out public security tasks.
By March 2024, the number of National Guard members had increased to 107,732. However, in the distribution of members, it can be seen that in Mexico City alone, there are 5,253 members, and this entity has the largest local public security force in the country with almost 80,000 uniformed officers.
“Mexico City has one of the largest police deployments, despite being the state with the largest police force in the country and with lower crime rates than other states with fewer deployed officers,” the report reads.
(Common tail)
In contrast, Colima, which has recently seen an increase in murders due to alleged settling of scores by organized crime, only 533 members of the National Guard were assigned.
In Sinaloa, home to one of the country’s most powerful drug cartels, 3,916 were deployed in 2024.
“The GN establishes its operational deployment, considering the current crime rate in the country and reported in the crime rate report of the Federal Jurisdiction, by federal entity, published by the National Information Center of the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System…”, the National Guard responded to Causa En Común in a request for information via transparency.
María Elena Morera, president of Causa en Común, expressed before the Senate of the Republic her growing participation in public security tasks of the Armed Forces without notable results, as well as the budget increase and the allocation of civil works, which benefit the military leadership and in turn, that it is at the service of a political party.
“The advance of the militarization of public security is reflected, first of all, in the allocation of resources to the armed forces, and it is during the López Obrador government that the budget allocated first to the Sedena reached historic highs,” the report explains.
Causa en Común points out that in 2021, the federal government established a total budget of 35,671 million pesos for the National Guard; in 2022, it was 62,825 million; in 2023, it was 67,826 million pesos; while in 2024 it was 67,526 million pesos,
However, the Ministry of National Defense has seen increases of 121% in its annual budgets in the periods referred to, and 64% for the Ministry of the Navy.
The report warns that President López Obrador’s strategic projects have also been factors in the rise in the presence of elements of the National Guard and the Ministry of National Defense throughout the country, which may translate into increased militarization.
“It highlights the direct or indirect control by the Armed Forces over the Maya Train, the National Migration Institute, the National Commission for the Prevention of Sanitary Risks, the Olmeca-Maya-Mexica SA de CV Airport, Railway and Auxiliary Services Group, a new hotel that operates in an apparently irregular manner in the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve in Campeche, among others,” the document explains.
