the Mexican president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obradordenied this Thursday that his government is “militarizing” to the country despite the controversial reform approved in the Chamber of Deputies to keep the Armed forces in public security tasks until 2028.
It is not militarizing, that the authoritarians do not want to pass themselves off as defenders of human rights. What did the conservatives do with the Army? Use it to repress without a constitutional basis,” said the president in his morning press conference.
His statements come hours after the Chamber of Deputies approved, with 339 votes in favor, 155 against and two abstentions, a constitutional reform so that the Armed Forces carry out public security tasks until 2028.
It might interest you: With everything and the presidential plane: AMLO confirms that the army is considering creating its own airline
The initiative, which passed with the votes of the ruling alliance and opposition parties, now needs to be endorsed in the majority of the 32 local congresses because it is of a constitutional nature.
President López Obrador supported the reform of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) with the argument that it will strengthen the National Guarda security body that he created in 2019 with the promise of keeping it civilian, but that last month he transferred to the Army.
I take this opportunity to thank the legislators because it has already been approved that the National Guard be supported by the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of the Navythat it continues to be supported and that the National Guard be strengthened,” he commented.
AMLO’s commitment to the National Guard stands
The president dismissed criticism from opponents and human rights defenders, who have warned about the growing power of the Armed Forces, which in Mexico have been involved in extrajudicial executions and forced disappearances.
The president argued that in previous governments “illegally they used the Army, the Navy, for public security tasks and, furthermore, without respect for human rights.”
They are reverend hypocrites. And now that a constitutional reform is being carried out and that the emphasis is being placed on the defense of human rights, now the clothes are being torn apart, ”he accused.
The National Guard and the Armed Forces have been the main bet of the current Government to pacify Mexicowhich registered 33,308 homicides in 2021 after the two most violent years in its history, under the mandate of López Obrador, with 34,690 murder victims in 2019 and 34,554 in 2020.
Despite his strategy, López Obrador acknowledged that “state and municipal governments must be supported so that their police officers can guarantee public safety.”
The last:
EFE International news agency based in Madrid and present in more than 110 countries.