On Sunday, Mexico’s President sent signals he’s willing to bypass congress to keep the National Guard patrolling border streets following a weekend of violence blamed on organized crime and drug cartels.
Andrés Manuel López Obrador is considering bypassing the legislature to give the Mexican Army formal control of the National Guard, the AP reported.
Under the country’s Constitution, the National Guard is supervised by “nominal civilian control,” the Associated Press (AP) reports. Obrador pledged in 2019 that by 2024 the army would be off the streets. However, now it appears that he has changed his thinking on the matter, as he continues to use the National Guard and military heavily.
“López Obrador wants to keep soldiers involved in policing and remove civilian control over the National Guard, whose officers and commanders are mostly soldiers, with military training and pay grades,” the AP reports.
“I think the best thing is for the National Guard to be a branch of the Defense Department to give it stability over time and prevent it from being corrupted,” he said. He also wants the army and the navy to help in public safety roles beyond 2024, the current dateline established in a 2020 executive order.
The country’s army has been heavily involved in policing since the 2006 drug war. While the country struggles to assemble a trustworthy police force, the army is seen as a stop-gap to control violence.
The National Guard has increased to 115,000, but nearly 80% of its personnel were drawn from the ranks of the military, according to the AP.
As insecurity continues to plague the country, faith in the National Guard and the military has been waning. Last week, drug cartels allegedly carried out widespread arson and shooting attacks, terrifying civilians in three major northwest Mexican cities, according to the AP.
Over the weekend, military authorities sent 350 National Guard and Army Special Forces members to Tijuana, a border city with California. Fox News reported a dozen vehicles were hijacked and burned by alleged gangs.
There were no reported injuries in the Tijuana hijackings. The street violence clogged traffic throughout the city and temporarily shut down the busiest U.S. border crossing.
Saturday’s violence was just the latest in a series of clashes between alleged cartels and gangs in Mexico. A prison gang fight erupted last Thursday, quickly spreading to the streets of Ciudad Juarez, just across the U.S.-Mexico border from El Paso, killing nearly a dozen people, The Dallas Express reported.
“They attacked the civilian, innocent population like a sort of revenge,” said López Obrador. “It wasn’t just the clash between two groups, but it got to the point in which they began to shoot civilians, innocent people.”
Following reports of increased violence, U.S. government employees were told to stay put and avoid traveling to the city on Friday evening, Fox News reported. That order has since been lifted, according to the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana.
“The August 12 instructions to U.S. government personnel to shelter in place are no longer in effect. U.S. citizens are reminded to reconsider travel to Baja California due to crime and kidnapping,” the agency tweeted.
Officials confirmed the arrest of 17 suspects from cities across Mexico. Seven of the suspects were apprehended in Tijuana, CBS News reported.
Years of conflict have raged in Ciudad Juárez between gangs such as the Artistas Asesinos, backed by the Sinaloa cartel, and the La Linea and Aztecas gangs, as well as the Juarez cartel, according to The Dallas Express.
