The arrest of the mayor of the Chiapas town of Frontera Comalapa, which sits on the border with Guatemala, over murder charges and the deployment of the state police to assume control of the municipality, has served to frame the current debate over the adoption of a state-level single police command across Mexico. The Mando Único initiative, promoted by the federal government, calls for the incorporation of all municipal police forces into single state police forces under the command of governors not mayors to help prevent law enforcement bodies from being infiltrated by criminal organisations. But opponents argue that putting governors in control does not provide any sure-fire guarantee against this, while it opens the way for governors to use the police to harass and intimidate political rivals, as is suspected to have happened in Chiapas. End of preview - This article contains approximately 1177 words.
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