Nov 20, 2012

Pena Nieto's security proposal rankles Mexican left

Borderland Beat by Chris Covert (Rantburg.com)
November 18, 2012

A proposal by the transition team of Mexican president elect Enrique Pena Nieto has the Mexican left up in arms and claiming the proposal is  throwback to the Mexican Dirty War of the 1970s and 1980s, according to numerous Mexican press reports.

According to press reports, president elect Pena is seeking to eliminate the Secretaria de Seguridad Public (SSP) and move its fuctions, primarily the Policia Federal (PF) to the Secretaria de Gobiernacion (SEGOB) or Interior Ministry.

The proposal was formally presented last Thursday by Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) Mexico state federal deputy  José Sergio Quiroga Manzur.  According to a report published on the website of Milenio news daily,  Sergio Manzur said the reform was intended to "ensure strong coordination" with regard to the internal security of Mexico.

The proposal so far has been seen by Mexican security experts as generally positive.  An El Universal news daily report quoted two experts, Samuel Gonzalez, an independent security consultant, and Jorge Chabat, a professor at the Centro de Investigacion y Docencia Economica (CIDE).

Gonzalez was quoted by El Universal saying that the SSP was never a federal security agency, but rather a police agency, whose functions belonged in SEGOB because its inclusion into arguably the most powerful federal agency would improve "coordination actions of public security."Read more. 

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