Mexico’s Supreme Court ratifies militarization of the country

The Supreme Court of Justice of Mexico has ratified the presence of the Army this Tuesday in the streets of the country in matters of public security, in the framework of the fight against organized crime ordered by the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO).

By a majority of eight votes, the Plenary of the Court has validated the constitutionality of López Obrador’s August order, which ordered the departure of soldiers and Marines from their barracks to confront organized crime.

Thus, it has been established that the head of state has correctly used his power established in article 5 of the constitutional reform decree, even though the chamber president, Arturo Zaldívar, has rejected that with this resolution, the body authorizes the militarization of public security tasks.

“The fact that this Supreme Court validates the participation of the armed forces in security tasks, until such time as other institutions of a civilian nature, such as the National Guard, conclude their integration (…), in no way means that this court is authorizing the militarization of Public Security”, he explained, as reported by the newspaper ‘Excelsior’.

This measure, approved by the Chamber of Deputies, allows that during ten years from the approval of the public security law -in force since 2019- the Mexican National Guard will be able to use the military in general security tasks in an “extraordinary, regulated, supervised, subordinated and complementary” manner, at the request of the country’s president.

López Obrador proposed in August that Mexican soldiers and Marines remain on the streets beyond 2024 to support the Mexican Police in public security tasks after he pushed through a reform in 2019 that had a maximum term of 5 years.

Previously, López Obrador has objected that the “emergency that the country is experiencing in public security” makes such an extension necessary.

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