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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| Mexican Leftists Endorse Changes to Security Law |
| 2011-08-09 |
| By Chris Covert In what can be seen as a stunning challenge to the independent Mexican left, a leader of Mexico Partido Revolucion Democratica (PRD) said today she endorses the new national security law as long as it defines national security in a "human approach". Maria de Dolores Padierna Luna, General Secretary of the PRD in a press briefing Monday said that changes to Article 29 and Article 89 in the Mexican constitution must have constraints on presidential powers. The new national security law makes changes to both articles to allow the Mexican military a good deal more independence in its counternarcotics operations. As matters stand now only presidents can declare states of emergencies. The president can only do so subject to a vote of both houses of Mexico's legislature and by the council of ministers, the president's cabinet. The new law seeks to permit regional states of emergencies for limited periods of time and subject to little if any confirmation. It also seeks to allow Mexican military field commanders to cancel public events, cut power and to monitor and even hack into social media websites. Current law disallows the Mexican military from even monitoring websites. Military commanders must learn information from websites by independent information provided by citizens. Many members of the PRD were involved in Mexico's Dirty War from 1968 to 1982, and are reluctant to provide the kind of power to a national administration the law seeks to give. This is so especially with the specter of a PRI president starting in 2012, since it was a series of PRI presidents who prosecuted the Dirty War. The new position of the PRD comes in the final week before an August 12th vote the that decides if the national security law is brought before the senate in a special session or if it is tabled for the next regular session to start as early as September. It is increasingly unlikely the law will go to a special session. Until the start of peace marches headed by Mexican leftist poet and writer Javier Sicilia, in the form of one of its founders, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the informal position of the PRD has been a call for a return of the military to the barracks and a shift of resources towards income supports for the poor. The ending of the military's involvement in the war on drugs was parroted by Sicilia as his movement has grown in relative stature due in part to the three peace marches since last spring. The PRD has done horribly in the last three state elections in Guerrero, Baja California Sur and in Mexico state. Elections currently contested for governor, state legislature and municipal seats in Michoacan are a major test for the PRD since the outgoing governor, Leonel Godoy Rangel, is a PRD governor. In fact the Michoacan elections are so important and are currently seen by the three main political parties as a bellweather for the future, all three leaders of Partido Accion National (PAN), Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), and PRD have taken up temporary residence in the state to oversee the campaigns. It is also not lost on any of the contestants, that the sister of Mexican president Felipe Calderon Hinojosa. Luisa Maria de Guadalupe Calderon Hinojosa, is the PAN candidate for governor of Michoacan, even though Calderon is considered a lame duck president with little pull for new national initiatives. Lopez Obrador's insistence last spring of giving a voters a real choice by denying alliances with PAN and other non-leftist parties have cost the PRD dearly in local and state elections. Lopez Obrador was attacked heavily by members of PRD in the days following the Mexico state elections because of PRD's poor showing. The move by the PRD to endorse the national security law subject to changes, while running counter to Lopez Obrador, can be seen as a shift to shore up their support in Michoacan and in the elections for president in 2012. To read Rantburg's report on the elections in Mexico state and other states, click here. This summer has seen a massive shift of security forces to Michoacan as the national Secretario de Seguidad Publica (SSP) is attempting to put down the new drug cartel Caballeros Templarios, a new cartel formed to replace La Familia, which has suffered horrific losses in counternarcotics campaigns at the hands of Mexican security forces since the start of the year. To read the Rantburg report on the SSP reinforcement in Michoacan, click here The thinking appears to be the new shift towards the new national security law will shift voters from PAN and PRI towards the PRD, and perhaps start a trend. Meanwhile Sicilia has begun to raise funds for another peace caravan, this time to the south. The new campaign dubbed Un Peso por la Paz,or A Peso for Peace has raised MP $50,000.00 (USD $4054.30) so far. The new peace march is intended to demonstrate his displeasure of a procedural vote a week ago which advanced the new national security law subject to changes to the next regular session where it will be finalized in a conference with the Mexican senate. The vote came just a few days after an informal meeting between Sicilia and legislators from both the Chamber of Deputies and Senate which ended in promises for reforms as they could apply in national security. Because of the vote, Sicilia has cut off subsequent meetings not only with legislators, but also with a delegation of the Secretaria de Gobierno (SEGOB) also known as the interior ministry. To read the Rantburg report on the vote to move the national security law, click here Sicilia said Monday the legislative route is not the route his peace movement wants to go. He said in a radio interview he is in discussions with Universidad Nacional Autonoma Mexico sociology professor Emilio Alvarez Icaza for a public conference on national security, and for a meeting with the Mexican judiciary. Emilio Alvarez Icaza was formerly the head of the Mexican Human Rights commission until September 2009. |
| Posted by:badanov |
| #2 No. Governors can request federal assistance, or they can "request" federal assistance after they sit down with with a presidential plenipotentary who tells them to make the "request". Happened in Durango earlier this summer, when the governor had a sit down with Cordero, minister of the interior. About website, I don't know if legidslators would detail it to specific instances, or the Mexican military would be allowed to establish digital commands. A lot of the law is still under discussion in Mexico City. |
| Posted by: badanov 2011-08-09 15:54 |
| #1 So the regional governors can declare states of emergency? Who invokes the federal military in gather breaking, power shutting and website watching? |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2011-08-09 10:23 |