The spectacular fall from grace of Mexico's previous armed forces supremo has raised awkward questions about the president's reliance on the military to fight drug gangs and manage an increasing portfolio of vital civilian infrastructure.
MEXICO CITY - The spectacular fall from grace of Mexico’s previous armed forces supremo has raised awkward questions about the president’s reliance on the military to fight drug gangs and manage an increasing portfolio of vital civilian infrastructure.
It threatens to sour government relations with the military, which since President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador assumed power in December 2018 has been tasked not just with reducing violence, but also managing ports and even building an airport. Now the same military leaders the president is counting on to pacify Mexico after years of gang violence may end up sidelined in top civilian security appointments, officials say.
In part this is because successive Mexican presidents, who can only serve a single six-year term, have opted to chop and change alternative, civilian police institutions rather than build on what their predecessors began, critics say. Alejandro Hope, a former Mexican intelligence official, said if security is handed over to the military, there is no point in investing in the training of civilian commanders.
In his political declarations, Lopez Obrador is often at pains to exalt the esprit de corps and probity of the army, despite ample past evidence of corruption.
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