By Chris Covert
Mexico's top naval officer told senators Thursday that judges are releasing criminals his naval infantry forces captured in counternarcotics operations and that the navy is suffering for their actions, according to Mexican news accounts.
And in related news, the Chamber of Deputies passed a change to the Mexican Code of Military Justice expanding the list of crimes that can be classified as treason, increasing the penalties for such crimes to between 15 and 60 years.
The change was aimed at current and prior service Mexican military who offer their services to drug cartels, such as the founding members of the Los Zetas drug cartel.
Secretaria de la Marina (SEMAR), Admiral Mariano Francisco Saynez Mendoza said during budget hearings that local judges release organized suspects too early and that the actions of the judiciary are causing morale within the naval service to suffer.
Admiral Saynez Mendoza appeared before senators to discuss his budget request for SEMAR for 2012 to increase from MP $15 billion (USD $106,936,650.00) to MP $19 billion (USD $135,453,090.00).
Admiral Saynez Mendoza has been the most outspoken, most critical of top Mexican military officials, reserving his most heated comments for human rights groups whom he claimed last July were being tricked by criminal organizations to do their bidding.
His remarks were made July, 2011 at a commencement address at the Heroica Escuela Naval Miltar naval academy in Veracruz, Veracruz with President Felipe Calderon and Secretaira Defense Nacional (SEDENA) General Guillermo Galvan Galvan, He said that human rights groups are funded in part by the cartels.
To read the Rantburg reports on Admiral Saynez Mendoza's remarks at the Heroica Escuela Naval Miltar naval academy commencement last July and the fallout, click here and here.
His remarks drew a strong rebuke from several Mexican NGOs, some of which cancelled negotiations with the Mexican government over protections for human rights groups, especially in states such as Guerrero which have not only a strong presence of criminal drug gangs but active hostile and armed insurgencies as well.
The talks were cancelled because of the "lack of respectful dialogue", as they put it. It is unknown if those cancelled talks have been restarted following the July 25th remarks by the Admiral.
In his remarks to senators, Admiral Saynez Mendoz also reiterated his plea to pass the new national security law, which he and other senior Mexican military officials say will strengthen the fight against the cartels.
One deputy identified as Agundis Arias agreed that the effort exerted by the judiciary has not been "consistent with the effort they have made."
SEMAR's 2012 budget increase is meant to address new naval ship building programs and the building of military hospitals in Manzanillo, Sinaloa and Altamira, Tamaulipas, both constant flashpoints in the tactical battle against the cartels.
Admiral Saynez Mendoza also told legislators in a closed door session he has never been confident in SEMAR's efforts to stop arms smuggled from the US.