Mexico: Senate Handing Control of National Guard to the Military Sparks Opposition From Rights Groups, Lawyers

Mexico's Senate has passed a bill that hands control of the National Guard to the Mexican Army.

Mexico News Daily reported that senators with the ruling Morena party and its allies favored the bill. The contentious debate for the measure last Friday lasted 12 hours, with a total of 71 senators voting in favor of it and 51 opposing it.

Morena Senate leader Ricardo Monreal abstained due to concerns about the measure's legality. Meanwhile, opposition lawmakers noted that they would bring the soon-to-be law to the Supreme Court and would challenge its constitutionality.

Mexico's Senator Claudia Anaya Mota said that "public safety is not achieved by violating the rule of law." Anaya is a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party.

Last month, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador announced plans to put the National Guard under the army's control. He is now set to sign the bill into law.

Security Ministry has control over the National Guard, but it operates under army leadership on the ground.

Opposing National Guard Control Given to Army

Executive director of Amnesty International Mexico, Edith Olivares Ferreto, said they have already seen the "disastrous results of the militarization of public security forces" in the country, according to an Al Jazeera News report.

Ferreto calls on the executive branch to create a plan for the "progressive withdrawal of the armed forces" in the streets and instead strengthen the civilian police forces and the development of public prevention policies.

High Commissioner for Human Rights of U.N., Nada Al-Nashif, also opposed the move, saying that the reforms "effectively leave Mexico without a civilian police force at the federal level."

Al-Nashif added that the change in the operations and control of the National Guard solidifies the already "prominent role" of the army in Mexico.

The Mexican president then lashed out at those opposing the measure, including U.N. Lopez Obrador said during a regular news conference, "when did the United Nations take a stand," then referring to the organization's stance on the war between Russian and Ukraine.

Mexico Law Enforcement and Violence

The National Guard started its operations in early 2019, with Lopez Obrador arguing that it should be under military command to prevent corruption, as reported by The Washington Post.

Mexican politicians had agreed that the country needs civilian police forces, which are often "corrupt, underpaid, and ill-trained." They also noted that they should stop relying on military forces to combat violence brought by Mexican drug cartels.

The president dissolved the old civilian Federal Police in 2019 and promised the National Guard would remain under the control of the civilian Public Safety Department.

Amnesty International claimed that the change in control will result in "more human rights violations."

More than 80% of the over 110,000 members of the National Guard came from the army and the navy. However, the National Guard nor the army have managed to curb violence in the country, with critics saying that the National Guard lacks the "investigative and intelligence capacities of a police force."

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: Mexico plan to militarise premier police force draws rights fears - from Al Jazeera English