Court decision suspends militarization of Mexico’s National Guard

The Mexican Ninth Federal District Judge based in Guanajuato, Karla María Macías Lovera, has indefinitely suspended the transfer of operational and administrative control of the National Guard to the Ministry of Defense and has ordered to return control of the police agency to the Ministry of Security and Citizen Protection.

The move is a severe setback for President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO), the driving force behind the creation of the National Guard and, recently, its militarization to strengthen the fight against crime.

The decision is based on an appeal by Angel Castro Gomez, a representative of the human rights organization Uniendo Caminos Mexico reports to the Mexican newspaper ‘Milenio’.

Castro alleged that the presidential decree increases the danger for the free exercise of activities aimed at protecting Human Rights since the militarization of the National Guard generates an inhibiting and intimidating effect on social liberties such as the free manifestation of ideas, expression, and assembly.

The appeal emphasizes that public security is not military but is a State function of a civilian nature in charge of the Federation, the states, and the municipalities, following Article 21 of the Constitution.

In this sense, the judge recalled that the Inter-American Court of Human Rights considers that the States must limit to the maximum the use of the Armed Forces for the control of common criminality or internal violence since the training they receive is aimed at defeating a legitimate objective and not for the protection and management of civilians.