Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador named General Luis Rodriguez Bucio on Monday as the new number two in federal security, a change that is yet another example of how the military is advancing in positions and functions previously held by civilians.
Until now, Rodriguez Bucio directed the National Guard, the star body created in this administration to combat insecurity.
When the National Guard was created, it was established in the Constitution that it would be a civilian body with which to provide security to the country because, according to the government, it would be free of corruption. Then it was placed under the command of the Secretariat for Citizen Security and Protection, which has always been in civilian hands. Its current owner is Rosa Icela Rodriguez.
However, four years later, said secretary not only no longer controls the National Guard, which in 2021 came under the command of the Army, but now has a general as number two in the department.
Rodriguez Bucio replaces Ricardo Mejia, a politician who led state dialogues at the beginning of the administration with which the government tried to find ways to pacify the country —something that has not been achieved— and who left the government last week to aspire to the government of the northern state of Coahuila.
“We have full confidence in General Bucio,” Lopez Obrador said.
During his administration, the military has been assuming more and more tasks, from the fight against drug trafficking, to customs control, migratory flows, the construction of large infrastructures, or even the cultivation of trees.
In addition, regulations were reformed so that the armed forces can continue collaborating in public security work, something that both the United Nations and human rights groups have harshly criticized for the lack of controls and transparency that exist towards the military.
The president, however, insists that they are much more reliable and less corrupt than other security agents and that the abuses that may have occurred —some very serious, such as their alleged involvement in the disappearance of 43 student teachers in the south of the country in 2014— are specific cases.
The most recent assignment by the National Guard was a huge deployment of 6,000 troops in the metro of the country’s capital, in theory, to prevent what the authorities suggested may be acts of sabotage against that public transport system that has had accidents. on a recurring basis apparently due to technical problems.
Source: El Nuevo Herald
