Mexico’s Supreme Court overturns law granting the Defense Department operational and administrative control over the National Guard.
Mexico’s highest court has limited the military’s participation in public security duties, blocking a controversial attempt by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to place a civilian force under military control.
The National Guard’s plan, approved last September by the ruling party-controlled Congress, alarmed opponents of Lopez Obrador and human rights activists, who said it was devolving too much power to the armed forces.
By eight votes to three, the Supreme Court on Tuesday overturned the reform of legislation that granted the Defense Department operational and administrative control over the National Guard, concluding that it was unconstitutional.
Before taking power in 2018, Lopez Obrador had promised to send the army back to barracks.
But under his presidency, the armed forces have maintained their role in combating drug cartel-related violence and even increased responsibilities, including control over ports and customs and major infrastructure projects.
Lopez Obrador created the National Guard in 2019 with a civilian command to replace the federal police accused of corruption and human rights violations.
He has since argued that the military is less likely to be infiltrated by organized crime than other branches of the security forces.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights last year described the reform of the National Guard as a “setback to human rights-based public security.”
350,000 dead
Nada al-Nashif, then acting UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said at the time that the changes “effectively leave Mexico without a federal civilian police force, further strengthening the already prominent role of the armed forces in Mexico’s public security” .
The increased role of the military has led to more allegations of human rights violations by law enforcement and the armed forces, and no sustained reduction in crime, she said.
More than 350,000 people have been killed in a spiral of bloodshed since then-President Felipe Calderon’s government controversially deployed the military to fight drug cartels in 2006.