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MEXICO-POLICE-PROTEST-POLITICS
Mexican police protest president’s National Guard plan
MEXICO CITY, July 4, 2019 (AFP) – Hundreds of federal police blocked roads
and protested in Mexico City Wednesday against President Andres Manuel Lopez
Obrador’s plan to merge them into his new National Guard.
The leftist leader is launching the new security force in a bid to fight
violent crime fueled by drug trafficking and also curb chronic corruption in
the police.
But officers accused the government of planning to cut their pay, and said
the president was violating the constitution by putting them under military
command.
A huge crowd of angry police gathered outside the capital city’s command
center in a pre-dawn protest that lasted well into the day. At one point,
officers blocked two key roads and briefly seized a toll plaza at the edge of
the city.
They vowed to continue the protest Thursday with a nationwide strike.
Lopez Obrador wrote on Twitter that the police are engaging in “mutiny,”
but it is not justified because “no police officer is being fired.”
He said that the unease is because some federal police will be unable to
join the National Guard since “they do not have acceptable behavior” or have
health problems, although he said that they will be given other jobs.
At a news conference, Security Minister Alfonso Durazo assured the police
that “absolutely none of your rights will be violated,” and that pay,
benefits, seniority and rank would be respected under the National Guard.
None of this convinced the protesters.
“It’s just another lie,” said Luis Javier Sanchez, 31, of the police
special forces division.
“They want to get rid of the federal police and replace it with a
militarized National Guard,” he told AFP.
Lopez Obrador officially launched the National Guard Sunday with a total
of 70,000 members — expected to rise to 150,000 members in the coming
months, largely drawn from the existing police and military.
The president has come under fire for naming a recently retired general to
lead the new force, despite promising it would have a civilian command
structure.
He has also faced criticism for his decision to deploy more than 20,000
National Guardsmen to secure Mexico’s borders under a deal with the United
States to curb migration — even though stopping migrants was not part of its
original mission.
BSS/AFP/MSY/1036 hrs