After the incident in which the president was a victim of harassment While walking through the Historic Center, experts consider that it is necessary to analyze the security scheme.
“In other countries, perhaps, we could say that the way those who exercise government are protected is exaggerated, but in Mexico there has come a point where perhaps we are at the extreme, in thinking that President Sheinbaum does not require a security team, and that can have very severe consequences,” explains Javier Rosiles, political analyst at the University of La Ciénega of the State of Michoacán (UCEMICH).
Maybe this team is not as ostentatious as in other countries, but it does seem to me that it needs to be rethought.
Javier Rosiles, political analyst and academic.
In the world, the security of presidents is usually in the hands of specialized groups. For example, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, is cared for by the Secret Service, whose functions include preserving the continuity of government and ensuring security at events of national importance by protecting the president and vice president, their families, visiting heads of state/government, and other designated persons.
The president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, is monitored 24 hours a day. Its protection is in charge of the Presidential Security Service of Russia, coordinated by the Federal Protection Service (FSO). These are men dressed in black who are divided into circles of protection. Some are bodyguards, others go unnoticed by the public and still others are snipers.
A different security model
Before becoming President, López Obrador announced that he would eliminate the Presidential General Staffwhich for decades was in charge of the personal security of the head of the federal Executive because it considered its operation to be onerous.
Thus, the then president created a group called Ayudantía and its security was in charge of civilians, led by Daniel Asaf Manjarrez, friend of the former president’s children. Today federal deputy of Morena.
This had already been implemented before, when López Obrador was head of Government of Mexico City. Then a similar security group emerged, but with the name “Gazelles.”
Before their disappearance, the presidents of Mexico were assisted and cared for by members of the presidential General Staff, whose powers were established in the Organic Law of the National Army and Navy.
“The President of the Republic will have a Presidential General Staff, military technical body that will help you obtain general information; will plan their personal activities related to the position and precautions for their safety and will participate in the execution of appropriate activities, as well as in those of related services, verifying their compliance,” said article 15 of that law.
According to the regulations of the Presidential General Staff among the functions were to guarantee the safety of the president, his family, the Presidents and foreign officials who visited the country, in addition to taking care of the former presidents of the Republic. In addition, they also assisted the presidents in the development of their activities and those of their wives.
Another of his tasks was to guarantee the security of the presidential facilities.
(Photo: Presidency/Cuartoscuro.)
Former President López Obrador justified his decision to disappear this security body with the argument that the Presidential General Staff was expensive and luxurious.
“There were one thousand for the administration of the Presidency offices, the expenses, office, and two thousand additional, not salary, because they were paid in the Ministry of Defense; two thousand for the Presidential General Staff,” he said in August 2019, close to completing his first year in government.
(Photo: Toya Sarno/Reuters.)
