Ricardo Pascoe Pierce
Angel Yael Ignacio Rangel, a student at the University of Guanajuato, was killed by a bullet fired by a ” military-police-soldier”. The homicide provoked protests by students in Guanajuato against the security forces and demanded punishment of the perpetrator.
The soldier who got out of his vehicle and shot at the students’ vehicle is a member of the National Guard, although they also claim that he is a member of the military police. Finally, his corporate affiliation has not been clarified. The security forces, alternately from the Secretariat of Defense, the National Guard, and the federal Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection, had explained that the vehicle in which Angel was traveling left “precipitously” when its occupants observed an “anti-huachicol” operation by the armed forces in the area.
With so much confusion about the different security forces involved in operations against organized crime groups and the precise lines of command and obedience in the processes, it is not surprising that there is confusion and disarticulation among the security forces themselves. And when an incident such as this happens, it is not surprising that the reaction is one of cover-up and denial of the facts.
And when the explanation offered by the armed forces is that the soldier who discharged his weapon is a ” military-police-soldier”, then it is understandable that confusion reigns. This is how the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection defined it in a communiqué that was intended, in reality, to justify the agent’s action. His name does not matter. What matters is what happened and, more importantly, why he did it. And he did it because a ” military-police-soldier” is trained to shoot first and ask questions later.
This is different from the training that a ground police officer, the municipal police officer, and the city policeman receive. His training is of proximity and closeness to the citizens, and, essentially, he is trained to ask first before he shoots.
In the case of Guanajuato, the agent was obviously in a hot operation and, perhaps, ready to shoot. The heat, tension, fear, and adrenaline combine to turn this subject, formally defined as a policeman, into an actual military soldier.
The Rector of the University of Guanajuato protested not only for the death of a student at the hands of the so-called “forces of order”. He protested the growing militarization of the country. He anticipated, perhaps inadvertently, the debate that is coming up in the country when President López Obrador proposes his initiative to disappear the National Guard (which is his creation, his very personal Frankenstein, after having disappeared the Federal Police) and which he aspires to turn it into a new unit within the ranks of the Army “so that it does not become corrupt”, as he claims.
During the last five presidential terms, each President has offered a new solution to the country’s security crisis, and so far, each one has failed. Zedillo invented the Federal Police because of Mexico’s political system change. The PRI lost control of the capital with the advent of the election of a Mayor from another party. It could no longer manage the city’s police and Cárdenas, as head of government, refused to evict the National University (UNAM) strike in 1999. The first operation of the new Federal Police was precisely the eviction of that movement, already rotten, in the highest academic institution.
Later, Fox and Calderón expanded and consolidated the Federal Police. Peña Nieto created the National Gendarmerie and reduced the role of the Federal Police. However, given the ineffectiveness and lack of results of the Gendarmerie, he opted for its incorporation into the Army. On the other hand, Lopez Obrador eliminated the Federal Police and created the National Guard. Now López Obrador wants to propose that his own creation be incorporated into the Army as a new ” military-police-soldier” corps. The justification he offers is that if he does not do so, it will fall into the hands of “corruption”. This is yet another failure in 5 consecutive administrations with Presidents who do not dare to take the necessary steps to create a true national police force, civilian and with the budget to be effective in its task of returning the internal peace that Mexico demands.
The Miguel Agustín Pro Human Rights Center reported 94 deaths caused by National Guard agents since its creation in 2019. It also warned that the Unit of Internal Affairs of the National Guard, responsible for studying these cases and suggesting punishments, if necessary, is in the hands of former military personnel against whom there are accusations of a history of human rights violations against civilians.
The National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) also does not question these cases and has become complicit in the country’s militarization policy.
The history of Mexico’s misunderstood federalism has prevented the creation of an effective and credible national civilian police force. The federal, state, and municipal governments all rely on the military to address the security crisis because politicians are unwilling or unable to make the tough decisions that creating a civilian police force throughout the country means, obviously, taking power away from the rulers themselves. And thus, we are sliding inertially toward a militaristic regime that will destroy the republican liberties we have today.
This is the lesson that Angel’s murder at the hands of a ” military-police-soldier” leaves us.
[email protected]
@rpascoep