“The local police are the best way to restore peace in the country. It is true that the situation of organized crime has institutionally surpassed localities, but it is also true that abandoning the local police has been a breeding ground for violence to continue for much longer”, says Angélica Canjura Luna, Common Cause researcher.
The use of the Armed Forces in security tasks did not begin with President Felipe Calderón, since since the 1940s they had already been assigned some tasks such as the fight against drugs, but it is from 2006 when the use of soldiers in the fight against insecurity.
One of the arguments for resorting to the Army was the inability of the local police to deal with organized crime, but a situation that was an exception became the rule, so the governments of Enrique Peña Nieto and Andrés Manuel López Obrador also they chose to reload their security strategy in the Armed Forces.
While the military and marines were used in the fight against violence, the local police had to be professionalized, but that did not happen. In the last three six-year terms, the police remained in oblivion.
“The municipal police are very small and lack capacity, they are budget strangled because the entire budget has gone to federal corporations such as the Army, the Gendarmerie, the National Guard,” says Víctor Hernández, an expert in public security and a member of the Center for Analysis and Research on Peace, Security and Development Olof Palme and the National Intelligence Network.
According to the report “Treasury Numbers” carried out by the organization México Evalúa, is in the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador when the neglect of the civil police is accentuated, while the military budget gained ground.
In 2022, the budget of military corporations is 2.6 times more than that of civilians. In 2014, civil institutions had more resources.
