The militarization of Mexico?

Article 21 of the Mexican Constitution provides in relevant part that: Public safety institutions, including the National Guard, will be of civilian character, disciplined and professional ("Las instituciones de seguridad pública, incluyendo la Guardia Nacional, serán de carácter civil, disciplinado y profesional.").

In Mexico, the Federal Police was abolished in 2019, because it was considered very corrupt. In its place the National Guard was created, under civilian supervision, although it was decreed that the National Guard would participate in military tasks for 5 years.  The opposition parties voted for it on the condition that it remain under civilian rule.  It should be noted that 80% of the 130,000 members of the National Guard come from the Army and the Navy.

In 2022, the President presented an initiative to move the National Guard to the control of the Mexican Army.   President Lopez Obrador of the Morena party, as well as the PT and PVEM, attempted three times to remove the National Guard from its civilian head, the Secretariat of Civilian Security and Protection (SSPC) to the Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena), the administrative arm of the Army, Navy and Air Force.  The opposition parties (PAN, PRI and MC) have claimed that this constitutes the "militarization of the country."  Morena's proposal would change the Constitution to say that the national Guard "is an armed force with the essential function of assisting public safety, permanently, of military origin and formation."  In September 2022, this constitutional reform proposal was approved but it was never completed because the Mexican Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional in April 2023.

A few days before the end of President Lopez Obrador's six-year term, the proposal to remove the National Guard from its civilian control to military control was approved on September 24, 2024, after a marthon 8 hour plus session.  Given the high levels of violence with the drug cartels in Mexico, President Lopez Obrador promised in 2018, to send the military back to their barracks, but he discovered that he needed the military to deal with the continuing violence.  The police were outgunned and infiltrated by the drug cartels and the new National Guard was comprised mainly of former members of the military.  The President maintained that the National Guard was worthy of confidence and not corrupt, but human rights groups argue that placing them under the command of the Armed Forces can increase human rights abuses, such as arbitrary detention, torture, forced disappearances and extrajudicial executions.

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights, in a 2018 decision that was taken into consideration by the Mexican Supreme Court (Alvarado Espinoza et al. v. Mexico, Judgment November 28, 2018) stated that "although the States Parties to the Convention could deploy the Armed Forces to perform tasks over and above thosse inherently related to armed conflicts, this use of the military should be limited insofar as possible and respond to conditions of strict exceptionality to address situations of criminality or internal violence, because the military forces are trained to defeat and enemy and not protect and control civilians, which is the specific training provided to police forces."  One can only assume that this latest reform will be brought to the Mexican Supreme Court again.