By Jose Angel Garcia
The University of Sheffield
The existent Ministry of Public Security (Secretaría
de Seguridad Pública, SSP) is about to disappear. According to its detractors, its
lack of results, inefficient coordination with other Ministries, mainly the
Procuraduría General de la República (PGR), and the multiple embarrassments in
which it has been involved (like the Florence Cassez and the Tres Marias cases),
have contributed to the decision to discard it after 12 years of existence.
Enrique Peña Nieto, Mexico’s next President, as
well as the members of its ‘transition team’ ensure that its elimination and
the incorporation of its functions into the Ministry of the Interior will
improve the provision of public security. By establishing a better and
permanent coordination of all the efforts and instruments of public security,
including the federal prison system, they say, the Ministry of the Interior
will be capable of contributing to the
prevention of crime, to safeguard the integrity of the individuals and to
preserve the public freedom, order and peace.
It is true that the current SSP have proved to
be incapable of dealing with the rising levels of insecurity and violence in
Mexico. This is why, senators and deputies of both the PRI and PVEM, now in
power, have rushed to make use of the weaknesses of the SSP to ensure that a
change is needed. All of them, coordinated by Pedro Joaquin Coldwell and Manlio
Fabio Beltrones, are now ensuring that the proposed reform will ‘change what
did not work as expected’, giving the society the level of public security that
deserves.
As we, the society, government, etc., would like to notice an immediate and
radical positive change in the current conditions of public security, the above
mentioned sounds coherent, necessary and justifiable. However, we must not
forget that the reasons why the SSP is now disappearing were the same reasons behind its creation in 2000. In words of former President Vicente Fox, the SSP was
institutionalized to guarantee the prevention, maintenance and re-establishment
of order and public security. All of this at the same time that it promoted the
cooperation and coordination between the three levels of government and the
society. Then, what would be different this time? As Ricardo Anaya, from PAN,
has argued, in which way taking the security functions from the SSP to the Ministry of the
Interior will automatically promote an improvement in public security? Furthermore, which are
the mechanisms that will ensure that the future ‘super’ Ministry of the
Interior will not use its power and capabilities for political purposes?
Different political
analysts and politicians from the leading opposition party, the PRD, have ensured that giving so
much power to the Ministry of the Interior can be counterproductive. If
the proposal is accepted, the Ministry of the Interior, responsible of
coordinating the power relations of the Executive with the Judiciary and
Legislative powers, but also states, political parties, and Civil Society
Organizations; will now also have the power to formulate and execute the
policies, programs and actions regarding the internal security. More
importantly, by absorbing the Federal Police (Policía Federal) the Ministry of
the Interior will be able to make use of the police, whenever it considers
necessary, to intervene in situations of imminent risks or violence.
Although the initiative presented by PRI and
PVEM briefly describes the objectives of this reform, it does not state the
legal mechanisms of control for the future functions of the Ministry of the
Interior. For this reason, contrary to the blind predisposition of PRI and PVEM
politicians to approve the proposal, deputies and senators of all parties
should study it properly to establish the required controls to its functions. If
that does not happen, the risk of having a Ministry of the Interior capable of
using the police forces for political purposes is more than feasible, and not
even the existence of strong social organizations and division of powers
(Executive and Legislative) would be able to counterbalance its power, as it is
ensured by the members of Peña Nieto’s transition team.
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