01/11/13 – The administration of Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has launched a new security strategy just over a month after taking office on December 1. The strategy, which was outlined on December 17 at the National Council of Public Security (Consejo Nacional de Seguridad Pública), was published on January 10 in the Official Journal of the Federation (Diario Oficial de la Federación). Although the president has made it clear that his administration will continue to uphold some of the security plans in place from his predecessor, former President Felipe Calderón (2006-2012), Peña Nieto nevertheless is differentiating his policies in an attempt to decrease the levels of violence that have plagued the country and, according to some estimates, have resulted in nearly 60,000 deaths in the past six years. Peña Nieto’s strategy will target six areas: planning, prevention, human rights protection, coordination, institutional transformation, and evaluation and feedback.
Among a wide range of proposed changes and upgrades to public security, the Peña Nieto administration, as outlined in Milenio, will first begin by implementing deadlines for federal, state, and local government institutions to comply with new security and safety related regulations, all of which are intended to target kidnapping and homicides. Second, the plan will focus on crime prevention, with the goal of creating a fund for the victims of violence, “making urban surroundings safer, working with society, and creating a supportive citizenry,” said Peña Nieto. To strengthen human rights protections in Mexico, the plan will address security forces’ behavior and conduct, particularly ensuring their use of legitimate force when attending to crimes and victims. For better security coordination among government institutes, the Secretary of the Interior (Secretaría de Gobernación, Segob) will oversee the creation of a new network, the System of Coordination and Cooperation (Sistema de Coordinación y Cooperación), which will divide the nation into five regions–Northwest, Northeast, West, Central, and Southeast. Within each zone, officials from Segob, the National Secretary of Defense (Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional, Sedena), the Secretary of the Navy (Secretaría de Marina, Semar), and the Attorney Generals Office (Procuraduría General de la República, PGR) will share work responsibilities in an effort to better handle security situations that arise in each designated reason. Perhaps drawing the most attention in the new strategy is Peña Nieto’s plan to unify police forces, and introduce a “10,000-person national gendarmerie–a police force with military-style training and techniques–designed to patrol far flung areas where local law enforcement and military forces have failed to eradicate widespread crime,” describes ABC News and Univisión. Implementing feedback and evaluations on how effectively the strategy is reducing violence in Mexico is the last step in the new plan.
Peña Nieto has made it clear that he no longer wants to prioritize bringing down drug cartel leaders as his predecessor did. Despite the dramatic increase in ejecuciones (drug-related homicides) under the Calderón administration, a large number of high profile drug cartel leaders were indeed captured or killed under Calderón’s watch, including Arturo Beltrán Leyva; Édgar Valdez Villarreal, “La Barbie;” Iván Velázquez Cabellero, “Z-50;” Ramiro Pozos González, “El Molca;” Mario Cárdenas Guillén, “M-1;” and Carlos Oliva Castillo, “La Rana,” among many others. Nevertheless, with the new security strategy plan moving forward, Peña Nieto is hoping to “successfully bring peace to Mexico,” although in somewhat different ways than Calderón did.
Sources:
Notimex. “Dan a conocer las 5 regiones para plan de seguridad.” Milenio. January 10, 2013.
