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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | June 2007 
Mexico Forces Top Police to Prove Trustworthiness
 El Paso Times
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| | Police officers waited to turn in their weapons last January under Operation Tijuana, when 3,000 Mexican soldiers and federal agents were sent to the city to ferret out corruption and curb organized crime. (John Gibbins/SD Union-Tribune) |
Mexico City - Mexico has temporarily removed all of its top federal police from their jobs and is forcing them to prove they will not be corrupted in the nationwide fight against drug trafficking, the country's public safety secretary announced today.
While authorities often have purged police forces to try to eliminate the nagging problem of corrupt officers, this is one of the most extreme measures taken on a nationwide level to guarantee Mexico's high-ranking officers are honest.
It comes as the government seeks aid from the United States for its crackdown on drug gangs, a battle led by federal police and soldiers. Washington has long complained about Mexico's endemic corruption problem hindering anti-smuggling efforts.
Public Safety Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna said the review had nothing to with those discussions and was in response to Mexicans who are tired of crime and corruption. In recent years, scores of federal police have been caught working for the drug cartels, tainting what was once considered the last trustworthy group of officers.
"We are well aware that the Mexican people are demanding police be honest, clean and trustworthy," Garcia Luna said. "It's obvious that there are mafias that don't want the situation to change so they can continue to enrich themselves under the protection of corruption and crime."
Garcia Luna said 284 high-ranking police would be forced to undergo what he called a "trust test" in which authorities would subject officers to anti-doping exams, polygraphs and psychological reviews; investigate their acquaintances, friends, and family; and check whether their assets are in line with their earnings.
The officers must pass at least the polygraph and anti-doping tests to remain on the force. Thirty-four with the best results will be promoted to regional chiefs of the federal police, the highest positions in the field.
Sixteen officers who failed the initial tests will be re-evaluated after taking courses on professionalism and six others who refused to be tested for drugs will be turned over to internal affairs, Garcia Luna said. He did not give further details, other than to say the 284 would maintain their ranks while they undergo the evaluation.
Authorities want to avoid simply firing corrupt officers as in the past, which resulted in many of them going to work full time for organized crime.
Garcia Luna said the action had been in the works for some time, and the forces had people already in place to take over the daily duties of the 284, who will also take courses to update their training to make them more efficient and professional.
U.S. officials have recommended Mexico streamline its tangle of police forces. The government oversees numerous groups of federal police who often compete with each other and refuse to share information. The evaluation focuses on the Federal Preventative Police and the Federal Agency of Investigation, which are leading the drug fight with soldiers.
Since taking office in December, President Felipe Calderon has sent more than 24,000 soldiers and federal police to battle heavily armed drug gangs blamed for more than 1,300 deaths this year, including dozens of victims who have been decapitated, their heads left in public places with threatening messages.
Calderon also has ordered the creation of an elite military special operations force capable of surgical strikes after gangs started opening fire on soldiers and federal officers.
In a rare acknowledgment of the gravity of the problem, Mexico's top domestic security official, Interior Secretary Francisco Ramirez, recently said that the government had lost control of the situation before the current offensive was launched.
The Calderon administration insists the crackdown is working - the government has already detained more than 1,000 gunmen and burned millions of dollars in marijuana plants. Traffickers are being extradited to the U.S. more rapidly than ever before, and police recently made the world's biggest seizure of drug cash, US$207 million (euro153 million) neatly stacked inside a Mexico City mansion.
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officials say it's too early to judge the crackdown's success. Seizures at the U.S. border indicate the flow of drugs north may actually be increasing.
Mexican and American officials are talking about how the U.S. government can do more to help. Mexico's ambassador to Washington, Arturo Sarukhan, recently said U.S. aid might include training courses and the exchange of intelligence information.
Mexico Changes Police Leadership
DPA
Mexico City - In an effort to step up the fight against corruption and organized crime, the Mexican government has changed 284 chiefs of the federal police (PFP), an official said Monday. The PFP, with more than 20,000 agents, is among the most important Mexican agencies responsible for fighting the illegal drug trade and also controls federal roads and customs, Federal Public Security Minister Genaro Garcia Luna said.
The decision to change the police leadership was unexpected, and it includes the top 34 PFP commanders in each one of Mexico's 32 states. Mexico City and Veracruz each have two top commanders.
Garcia Luna said in a press conference that the new appointees received special training ahead of the change.
However, the minister said their predecessors will not be thrown out of the force automatically. Instead, they are to undergo training and permanent evaluations of their reliability, before a final decision is made on whether they will remain in the PFP, Garcia Luna said.
The minister said the former high-ranking PFP officers have not been linked to drug-related or other crimes. All public institutions, including the police, are currently suspected of being involved in drug trafficking.
Sources at the Federal Public Security Ministry noted Monday that it can be easy to corrupt police officers. A police officer earns some 6,000 pesos monthly (around 550 dollars), and getting him to cooperate with criminals is said to cost 4,000 pesos (370 dollars) a month. |
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