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Special Report - The military as police: a balance sheet (ISSN 17414474)
One state of emergency after another
Though the constitution establishes that internal security is principally entrusted to the national police (PNP), it also allows the President to authorise military intervention against a hostile group after having first declared a state of emergency (which must be for stipulated periods and in specific zones). There is also provision for the President to order the military to act in support of the police outside the zones declared in a state of emergency against drug trafficking or terrorism, or to protect strategic installations or vital public services — in cases when the PNP’s capabilities have been overwhelmed or are in danger of this happening.
- Executive summary
- Under Peña Nieto the military remain in the field
- Extensive use of the military on two fronts
- More troops deployed as violence rebounds after ‘truce’
- Level of violence declines but is still high
- New special units to bolster mass troop deployment
- President gets free hand to deploy military
- One state of emergency after another
- Relying on Carabineros to face two threats
- Military kept out of internal security
- Almost complete militarisation
- Allowing ‘preventive’ use of armed forces
- Trying to assess effects