Mexican gov’t names commanders of new National Guard

Mexico City — Two soldiers and a marine who are in the process of retiring, and an active-duty Federal Police officer will be in charge of the National Guard, a new law enforcement agency being organized in Mexico, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Thursday.

“We know who will be in charge of the National Guard; how it will be organized and who will be in command. As we know, we will combine three institutions,” Lopez Obrador, the founder and leader of the leftist National Regeneration Movement (Morena), said during his daily press conference at the National Palace in Mexico City.

The General Staff of the Xicotencatl National Guard will be headed by Azolohua Nuñez, from the Defense Secretariat; Gabriel Garcia Chavez of the Navy Secretariat and Patricia Rosalinda Trujillo of the Federal Police.

Commanding the National Guard will be army Gen. Luis Rodriguez Bucio.

Rodriguez Bucio said that he was on active duty for several decades, took training courses in Germany and served as commander and deputy commander of the General Staff in several military zones around the country.

He was recently in charge of the Council of Delegates of the Inter-American Defense Board (IADB) in Washington, the first Mexican soldier to hold such a position.

He is currently filing his retirement papers, and that procedure should be completed by August 2019.

Lopez Obrador, popularly known as AMLO, had said that both retired and active-duty military officers would be in charge of the National Guard.

In the end, most of the officers chosen for the board are close to retirement.

Nuñez, from the Defense Secretariat, said he joined the armed forces in 1976 and is waiting for his retirement to become official by July 2019.

Garcia Chavez, from the Navy Secretariat, is retired after four decades of service during which he studied many subjects, including human rights.

Trujillo, a surgeon with a degree in forensic science and multiple PhDs, will also hold a command post.

As Trujillo said, she was the first woman to earn the rank of general commissioner in the Federal Police.

“Proudly Mexican, I accept with commitment and responsibility this position to serve (Mexico), my community and society, to whom I have devoted myself with confidence, values, ethics, principles, strength and enthusiasm,” Trujillo said.

Public Safety Secretary Alfonso Durazo, for his part, said: “They will be in charge of the fundamental leadership duties of the National Guard.”

The National Guard, the creation of which required a constitutional amendment, has been the subject of controversy because opposition and human rights groups believe it will perpetuate the presence of soldiers in the streets.

After an agreement among all political parties, the president promised that the National Guard would be run by civilians with soldiers only participating in the force for five years.

Though it was decided that the guard would have a civilian board, the news of the military appointments by the president has sparked new criticism.

AMLO said on Wednesday that the group will guarantee the country’s public safety and include at least 50,000 personnel.

“To protect the country we have the national defense. Every Mexican wants to defend the nation, but because of the circumstances, we have to focus on the serious problems of (domestic) crime and violence,” the president said in justifying the presence of army and navy personnel on the streets.

He said that although security will be increased with soldiers on the streets, this is only part of his strategy to reduce violence.

“The main thing is to address the issues that cause (violence),” such as poverty and inequality, AMLO said.

On Tuesday, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said during a visit to Mexico City that she hoped the National Guard could end the “paradigm” of violence of the past 12 years in the Aztec nation.

Bachelet was referring to the militarized war on drugs launched in December 2006 by then-President Felipe Calderon that led to more than 200,000 deaths.

Mexico registered 33,000 homicides last year.