Six years ago Mexicos president dissolved the countrys Federal Police and handed security responsibilities fully to the military.
Now, his successor has quietly begun to build an elite civilian investigative and unique operations require to combat the drug cartels.President Claudia Sheinbaum had actually currently revealed a desire early in her presidency to move away from previous President Andrs Manuel Lpez Obradors oft-criticized hugs, not bullets strategy.
It focused on resolving the social roots of criminal activity rather than directly confronting Mexicos powerful cartels.Sheinbaums security chief, Omar Garca Harfuch, is making use of his law enforcement contacts mostly from the former ranks of the Federal Police to claw back security capabilities from the armed forces with a civilian force under his direct command.The federal government has yet to formally reveal the new National Operations Unit, understood by its Spanish initials UNO, however its presence is an open trick amongst former members of the Federal Police, where Garca Harfuch started his career.Three Mexican authorities, all of whom asked for privacy to discuss the still unannounced force, verified its presence to The Associated Press.Security expert David Saucedo, who has actually consulted with individuals who have signed up with the force, said he thinks Garca Harfuchs primary goal is to have a military that enables him to meet demands from Washington.UNO takes shapeThe unit began to form quickly after Sheinbaum took office and it wants to have 800 members by the end of the year, stated one federal official, who is familiar with a lot of the units details.On Monday, while Garca Harfuch remained in Washington meeting with the Trump administration, the security ministry published a require college graduates to make up the first generation of investigative and secret agent, saying only they would be part of a specific group to strengthen the nations security.UNO will have three branches distributed geographically across Mexico, along with a high-impact group that will be the elite of the elite, the federal main said.Its existing members are mostly former Federal Police and members of the unique operations team Garca Harfuch created when he was Mexico Citys police chief.
Many have actually previously gotten training from security forces from the United States, Colombia, Spain or France.His difficulty is restoring the trust of his U.S.
equivalents after Lpez Obrador limited U.S.
representatives movements in Mexico and do it as President Donald Trump pressures Mexico to step up the battle versus fentanyl trafficking.A questionable pastShortly after taking workplace, Lpez Obrador changed the Federal Police with a brand-new force, the National Guard, that he offered to the general public as civilian, however that was always led by and comprised of the armed forces.He berated the Federal Police as too corrupt to conserve and made Mexicos former security chief Genaro Garca Luna, then dealing with trial in the U.S.
and eventually convicted of working for the Sinaloa cartel, the poster kid.
He cut financing for training and equipping local police.What followed were 6 years of what critics decried as militarization that effectively focused extraordinary authority in the hands of the armed forces.Despite that, levels of violence stayed stubbornly high and critics stated the cartels grew more powerful, fueled by skyrocketing revenue from fentanyl.
Among the main criticisms of the National Guard and military was that while they had numbers and fire power they did not have the investigative abilities needed to dismantle large criminal organizations.Garca Harfuch was initially a toothless tiger, who was regularly denied resources, details and investigative files by other security entities, stated Saucedo, based in Guanajuato state, Mexicos most violent.UNO puts an elite force under his direct command.The Mexican federal official rejected that UNOs goal was to please Trump, but noted the system was associated with the extraordinary shipment of 29 prominent cartel figures to the United States at the height of settlements in between the 2 nations to suspend threatened tariffs.
They were pulled out of prisons all over Mexico, assembled and sent out to the U.S.
without incident.The challenge: prevent corruptionSpecial operations forces, be it from the Navy, Army, Federal Police or state police, have a checkered history in Mexico, having actually been associated with lots of scandals and abuses of power, extrajudicial killings and seepage by cartels.There have been a lot of cases that were bad, stated the formerly priced estimate federal authorities, who included that there were also sincere police.
He stated the security ministry is stressing more stringent screening, exhaustive background examinations and much better pay when theyre in.Garca Harfuchs influence likewise extends to states where Sheinbaums party holds power.
Individuals he trusts are taking essential security positions and UNO will train state special operations groups that are also made up of numerous former Federal Police.The southern state of Chiapas, where Mexicos most effective cartels are fighting for control of smuggling routes, announced a special operations force in December called the Pakal with some 500 members.
Two members informed the AP they were ex-Federal Police and did 8 months of specialized training to join the Pakal.But doubts remain.
For Saucedo, since the new elite force does not yet have efficient internal controls and responsibility mechanisms, theres no guarantee that this elite group wont devote the excesses dedicated by other special operations groups.Source: AP-- Agencies