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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| Mexican National Security Law Tabled for Now |
| 2011-07-12 |
| By Chris Covert One of the underlying motivations for the peace movement in Mexico has been the controversial National Security Law currently wending its way through the Mexican legislative processes. Since late last April the law has been in limbo since it failed to come to a vote in the senate. The promise has been by leaders in both Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) and Partido Accion Nacional (PAN) Chamber of Deputies leaders that the law will eventually pass after it passes several hurdles. One major hurdle was made last May when the Mexican Supreme Court (Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nacion (SCJN)) ruled that it was not necessary for soldiers accused of killing civilians to be tried by civilian courts. The issue has been pressed by the Mexican left and within the peace movement partly as a sure means of killing the law, and despite the opinion, it is still a point of contention. The last hurdle failed Friday when representatives from the PRI leadership of the Mexican Chamber of Deputies, the Secretaria de Gobierno (Interior Ministry) Francisco Blake and newly elected leader of the PRI, Humberto Moreria agreed the law would not be part of the next legislative special session. Several issues failed to pass Mexican legislative processes this past spring beside the security law was the theft of oil and money laundering. Both of the other issues will be part of the new special session. The reaction of leftist parties, especially the Partido Trabajo (PT), an ally for the mainstream leftist Partido Revolucion Democratica (PRD), makes the case that the law is still alive, but tabled in favor of a better political consensus. A presidential election is coming in less than a year. In fact the presumed frontrunner of PAN has announced that PAN must chose its candidate for president now. The race for Los Pinos is already on, if not officially. In a press conference PT officials and legislative leader criticize the action tabling the law accusing PRI leaders of moving the law on a whim. The charge is a prelude to a meeting of a legislative committee to be convened which will issue an opinion of the law in August. PT and PRD each have four representatives in the committee to the PRI's five and PAN's three. As debate begins it is clear the two left parties will be in a position to influence the outcome to some extent, although it is clear that both the PRI and PAN, -- both expected to be strong contenders in the upcoming general elections -- will have the upper hand when the next phase of the law is complete. And both of the mainstream parties have made it clear the law eventually will pass. To read a brief overview of the Mexican Supreeme Court's decision and the Mexican left's objections to the law, click here. From the point of view of the Mexican left as well as the international left, the new law is controversial. It overturns some of the main concepts now in use in dealing with the cartels on the street. As matters now stand, the Mexican military basically is deployed to the streets as an enforcement arm of the attorney general (Procuradora General de la Republica (PGR)). Although it is not officially said the presence of the Mexican Army is said to be a replacement for local and state police units which are not generally considered reliable. Indeed state and local police are often the weakest parts of the enforcement issue against the cartels. Also police forces are generally poorly armed, poorly trained and poorly educated, and easily corrupted by cartels. The national security law takes away the military's subordinace to the legal arm of the republic and places it directly under the president. Understandably Mexican leftist parties are concerned about the concentration of such power in the hands of a single individual. But the law does not stop there. Additional power can be granted to military units on the ground to order curfews, cut power and communications and to monitor digital media such as Twitter and Facebook accounts for intelligence. Such power is subject to veto by the president alone, thus the concentration of power concerns. At the moment, those activities are forbidden; the Meixcan military cannot organize a digital media intelligence unit within its basic zone and territorial command. Another change is the interrogation and disposal of captives. The Mexican military can interrogate captives and use the intelligence to develop more missions for itself, but it must first transmit the inforamtion to the local ( I.E. state) and national legal authorities, and received permission to act on such information. The new law gives military commanders the discretion to act on intelligence without consulting anyone but command. The next step in the law is expected to be complete by August 5th. |
| Posted by:badanov |