LatinNews Daily - 26 September 2024

*Mexico’s federal senate has approved a controversial constitutional reform to transfer the national guard (GN) from the public security ministry (SSPC) to the military-led defence ministry (Sedena). The senate voted by 86 in favour to 42 against to approve the reform, with zero abstentions. As with the judicial reform approved two weeks earlier, Senator Miguel Ángel Yunes Márquez gave the ruling Movimiento Regeneración Nacional (Morena) and its allies the extra vote needed to reach the two-thirds threshold. Formerly of the right-wing opposition Partido Acción Nacional (PAN), the party expelled Yunes after the judicial reform vote saying he had “betrayed the country”. The reform places the GN, which was originally created as a civilian police force, under military command, as well as authorising it to participate in criminal investigation activities and more generally expanding the armed forces’ scope to participate in tasks beyond those strictly related to the military. Critics warn the reform amounts to the militarisation of public security and could increase the risk of rights abuses by security forces. The reform must now be approved by a majority of the 32 state legislatures, with the congresses in Tabasco, Zacatecas, Sinaloa, Quintana Roo, Tlaxcala, Durango, Baja California, Oaxaca, Campeche, Yucatán, and Colima, as well as Mexico City (CDMX), having already done so at the time of writing.