Image Credits: @diegoelbueno on Unsplash (Unsplash License)

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Throughout Mexico’s history, militarization has been a chronic issue. In this context, militarization is defined as bringing military forces and concerns into civilian life. After the War of Independence in 1821, the country went through a slow and challenging transition to a self-governing state. There were two groups in Mexico, the Conservatives and the Liberals, that resulted from several military coups. The opposing sides disagreed on how to rule the country and held conflicting views on topics such as education, the army, and the overall system of government. Since the first president in 1824, Mexico did not have an elected civilian president again until 1946. In 2006, the war on drugs was launched by then-President Felipe Claderón, which was meant to suppress cartels and drug-related violence. Since then, government military power has been gradually increasing. Previous presidents used militarization as a temporary action to restore and strengthen local, state, and central government institutions. 

Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), the current president of Mexico, entered the presidency in 2018 after two unsuccessful presidential campaigns in 2006 and 2012. He is a center-left populist politician who is a member of the Democratic Revolution Party. One of his key promises throughout his campaign was returning the armed forces to the barracks because he stated that Mexico would no longer use force when addressing social problems. Even with such statements, one of his first actions as president was to increase military presence within the public sphere. Mexico struggles with extreme levels of insecurity, specifically in the form of violence and poverty, and AMLO believed that deploying more armed forces was a solution to this. Early into his presidency, legislators within AMLO’s party passed a bill that would allow legal militarization. AMLO’s first move after the bill was proposed was creating a national guard to replace nearly all federal police. His second militarization act was to give the military more power in politics and economics. The armed forces are now in charge of major infrastructure projects, the operation of airports and immigration, and seaport affairs. While militarization is not new in the country, the intertwinement of military and civilian life is unprecedented. 

AMLO’s policies of militarization have created negative implications for Mexico’s society, and these effects will most likely persist. One of the most significant problems is the armed forces’ history of being non-transparent. Lack of transparency is becoming a growing issue because AMLO’s plan has his deployed soldiers taking over traditional law enforcement tasks. Such tasks include detaining and interrogating civilians, detaining undocumented individuals, preserving evidence, and obtaining court orders. There have been numerous reports of malpractice from the soldiers conducting these tasks; reports of soldiers fabricating evidence, detaining citizens at random, torturing civilians, and executing unarmed people have been increasing since the recent militarization. There has been evidence of extrajudicial killings by the armed forces under AMLO’s administration that are rarely, if ever, tried in court. To give an example, in July 2020, a shootout occurred between the military and members of an organized crime group. Military officials released a statement informing that none of the suspects had survived. This was held true until the body camera of a soldier was released, showing that there was a single survivor. After the soldier had realized the suspect was alive, they were ordered by another soldier to execute him without further questioning. 

There are multiple ways that the armed forces have been avoiding charges of extrajudicial killings and torture, such as soldiers bringing in doctors to treat victims of any potential wounds that could be used in a case against them. There have also been instances of soldiers planting weapons and moving or disposing of bodies altogether. The number of violent incidents involving armed forces continues to grow under AMLO’s presidency. Within the first three years of the six-year presidential term, the armed forces had over 640 run-ins with “aggressors” or, in other words, armed citizens, as reported by the army. A reported 515 citizens were killed, 89 injured, and only 381 arrested. Comparatively, only 21 members of the armed forces were killed in these altercations. There have also been more than 6,500 complaints filed to Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission between the years of 2014-2022 of human rights violations by the Ministry of the Navy and the National Guard. 

There have been a significant number of cases against the militarization plans, but AMLO has continued to refuse to comply. For example, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights has ruled that the military should only work alongside law enforcement in exceptional cases. This case details that the army should not replace law enforcement but only aid them under strict monitoring. Even though such cases date back to 2018, including before and after AMLO entered office, notable action has yet to be taken against the military. 

Mexico’s government has also failed to uphold its agreement with the United Nations to act with transparency and concern for human rights in regard to their armed forces. In 2019, the Mexican government signed a deal with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights so that they could oversee the Mexican armed forces. AMLO claims that this was to open its information to the international institution, but it has raised many concerns from the public. The public believes that Mexico will not follow through with the deal because of its consistent withholding of information from the Plenary Session of the National Institute of Transparency, Access to Information, and Protection of Personal Data (INAI). For instance, the Secretary of National Defense (SEDENA) stated that they did not have reports related to the use of force by the military towards suspected members of organized crime from the years 2006 to 2018. The INAI rejected this statement because of the considerable amount of evidence suggesting otherwise and ordered SEDENA to make said documents publicly available. This is not the first time SEDENA has withheld information on the grounds of “non-existence.” By withholding such information, Mexico’s government is not only failing to uphold the agreement with the UN but is also failing to comply with Article 6 of the Constitution of Mexico, which states that Mexico’s government must guarantee the right to information to their citizens.

Aside from the Inter-American Court and the UN, other legal issues have arisen as a result of the militarization plan. According to Article 129 of the Constitution of Mexico, “No military authority may, during peacetime, perform any functions other than those directly related to military affairs. There shall be fixed and permanent military command headquarters only in the castles, forts, and warehouses immediately subordinated to the Federal Government, or in the camps, barracks, or dumps established for the troops outside towns.” AMLO’s decision to allow military personnel to have political and economic positions within the civilian society directly contradicts this article. Mexico is currently involved in an internal armed conflict due to the drug war, but it is not amidst a war in technical terms. 

AMLO has been able to carry out this militarization despite Article 129 due to a congressional reform that was passed early on in his presidency that allowed soldiers on the streets until 2024. In October of 2022, Congress once again passed a congressional reform to allow the military to assume these roles until 2028. Due to the number of legal issues related to this topic, the case was brought to the attention of the Supreme Court. Before the court’s decision, AMLO criticized the Supreme Court for not generating justice within Mexico. On April 18, 2023, the Supreme Court ruled in an eight out of eleven decision that military control in this capacity is unconstitutional. 

Despite the Supreme Court ruling, AMLO has continued his militarization plans throughout Mexico. The lack of transparency and accountability surrounding the armed forces’ new roles in politics and economics, proven evident by reports of human rights violations, extrajudicial killings, and surges in violent incidents involving the military, will continue if action is not taken. Legal battles and tensions between the Supreme Court and the President have continued to rise, and will likely persist. It is critical that the Mexican government takes action to create a plan to limit militarization and hold the armed forces accountable to protect the well-being of their citizens.