The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, announced this Monday that the now ex-commander of the militarized National Guard, Luis Rodriguez Buciowill be the new Undersecretary of Public Security.
“He was the commander of the National Guard, he did a very good job (…) and now he is going to be Undersecretary of Public Security,” the Mexican president reported in his morning conference at the National Palace.
This appointment comes after the resignation of Ricardo Mejía last Friday to seek to be a candidate for governor of the northern Mexican state of Coahuila, after losing the internal poll of Morena, in which Senator Armando Guadiana will be the standard bearer of the official party for the governorship.
In the place of the commander of the National Guard, which López Obrador created in 2019 as a civilian body but which last year transferred to the Army, General David Córdova Campos will serve.
“We have all the confidence in General Bucio and, in his place, as commander of the National Guard, General David Córdova Campos will serve,” he stated.
The new commander of the National Guard, originally from Sonora and who is a major general with a diploma from the General Staff, retired in 2020 from the Armed Forces, after being a senior officer of the Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena), which now maintains the control of the National Guard.
Regarding the resignation of Mejía, the president López Obrador criticized that he did not say goodbye personally and that it was through a letter.
“He didn’t even say goodbye, he just sent me a piece of paper,” he mentioned.
The appointment of soldiers to public security posts has generated criticism from national and international organizations since López Obrador came to power.
Between them, Amnesty International has accused the Mexican government of “normalizing the militarization“, while other organizations have considered this situation “worrying”, such as the Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Human Rights Center (Centro Prodh).
Even the UN Office for Human Rights has expressed its concern about the change of assignment of the National Guard, going from a command and civil formation, as promised in its creation, to a military regime last year.
The most recent controversy has arisen with the presence of military elements of the National Guard in the metro of the capital of the country.
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