The public security tasks that – formally – have been carried out by the Armed Forces of our country since 2019 will continue for the next four years, because this is established by a transitional article of the Constitution, which set the month of March 2028 as the deadline for the completion of these tasks.
Thus, the new federal administration, which will begin next October 1, will have 1,274 days to strengthen the National Guard, since As of March 27, 2028, the Army and Navy must return to their barracks.
The Fifth Transitory Article of the decree that reformed the Constitution in 2019, with which the National Guard was created, established that the permanent Armed Forces could carry out public security tasks for five years.
That is, initially, the military personnel had to conclude their assistance to the civil authorities in this month of March 2024.
However, in November 2022, this transitional section of the Magna Carta was reformed, extending the permission that the Army and Navy have until 2028 to develop public security operations, an area that is constitutionally reserved for civilians.
That is why the tasks that the Armed Forces carry out in this matter are – in addition to being transitory – extraordinary, since “the absolute necessity” must be proven for the Army to intervene in tasks that must be carried out by the National Guard, and the State and municipal police.
What will the new administration do?
The public security tasks undertaken by the Mexican militia since 2019, and which were extended until 2028, They are not mandatory, but optional, since the same Fifth Transitory article of the decree that created the National Guard clearly points out that everything depends on what the president decides.
“While the National Guard develops its structure, capabilities and territorial implementation, the President of the Republic may have the permanent Armed Forces available for public security tasks. In accordance with the terms set forth by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation,” details the aforementioned paragraph.
The verb “may” implies that whoever wins the next presidential election has the option of not using the Army and Navy in public security tasks.
So far, only the Morena candidate, Claudia Sheinbaum, He has stated that, if he wins the elections, the Armed Forces will continue with this task.
Obviously, if there is no other constitutional reform, and if it is decided to keep the Army on the streets, the new head of the federal Executive Branch will have to meet the already established deadline that ends in March 2028.
Which have been the results?
In addition to considering the public security tasks carried out by the Army and Navy as extraordinary, The Constitution establishes that its intervention must be subordinate and complementary. This means that these are “support tasks”, of assistance or complement, that military personnel provide to civil institutions.
In fact, the same Magna Carta orders that the permanent Armed Forces that carry out public security tasks “must be trained in civil police doctrine,” which is indicated in Article 21 of the Constitution.
Additionally, military action in the area of public security is supervised, so the president must deliver to Congress, every six months, a report “on the use of the power” to dispose of the Army in these tasks.
In this vein, the report that the president sent to Congress last year Andrés Manuel López Obrador reported that, from November 19, 2022 to May 19, 2023, 79,399 members of the permanent Armed Forces were deployed, “distributed throughout the national territory in Public Security tasks.”
In operations to combat drug trafficking, 5,668 people were arrested during that period. More than 26,375 kilos of cocaine were also seized; 44,387 kilos of marijuana; 155,967 kilos of methamphetamines, and more than 1,238 kilos of fentanyl.
The Army and Navy also seized 6,255 vehicles that were used to transport drugs, and more than 58.2 million pesos, as well as 63.3 million dollars.
The report adds that in the six months being reported, 4,973 weapons were seized; 383 grenades; 18,240 magazines, and more than 543,000 cartridges.
Regarding the fight against fuel theft, popularly known as huachicoleo, 1,682 clandestine intakes were identified and closed, and 3 million 554,579 liters of illegally extracted hydrocarbons were seized.
It is assumed that all these actions are independent of those carried out by the National Guard, a corporation that since January of this year had to be transferred 100% to the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection, as ordered in April 2023 by the Supreme Court. Court of Justice of the Nation.
As will be remembered, the country's highest court invalidated the reform that militarized the National Guard, since articles 21 and 129 of the Constitution establish that all public security institutions must be civilian in nature.
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Surya Palacios Journalist and lawyer, specialist in legal and human rights analysis. She has been a reporter, radio host and editor.