Statement of Aims

1. Context

Mexico’s most relevant security issue in the last decades has been the challenge posed by drug trafficking to its government and society, as reflected in institutional corruption and violence generated by this illegal activity.

Even though drug trafficking can be understood as only one aspect of an integrated drug market (the other is consumption), Mexico has for decades adopted the US coercive perspective by emphasizing the supply-side of the problem in detriment of demand-reduction measures. In this context, Mexico has confronted drug trafficking within its own territory at a high cost in terms of lives, and exposing its armed forces -a key institution for the country's stability- to corruption and human rights violations complaints.

After 71 years of Institutional Revolutionary Party-rule (PRI), political alternation in the country in 2000 with President Vicente Fox –from the right-wing National Action Party (PAN)-, led to the end of an implicit understanding between the government and the drug cartels to avoid violence. Later on, the strategy of striking at high-value targets under President Felipe Calderon –also from PAN-, intensified fragmentation as well as competition among the cartels for the lucrative corridors to the north, in turn fostering confrontation within the cartels, among the cartels, and between these organizations and the Mexican authorities.

The PRI’s return to power with President Enrique Peña Nieto in 2012 did not represent a significant change in effectively dealing with the problem since transformations in the security sector (e.g. the Secretary of Public Security was merged into the Ministry of the Interior and the “Mexico Platform” -the criminal investigations data base- was dismantled) only worsened the security situation to the point where 2017 became the most violent year so far in the country.

Currently, for the first time in history, a left-wing government came to power in Mexico promising to end corruption and violence in the country, taking advantage of widespread social discontent. The Andres Manuel Lopez-Obrador (AMLO) government (MORENA-National Regeneration Movement) has publicly discussed innovative approaches to deal with violence by correctly assuming that what Mexico requires is a long-term, whole of government, integral, security policy to deal with insecurity.

Nevertheless, its approach faces two important challenges: 1) Lopez-Obrador has been presenting controversial proposals such as the possibility of legalizing marihuana and opium poppy plantations in the State of Guerrero, as well as considering amnesty for criminals, which has faced initial resistance not only from government sectors (e.g. the military) but also from the relatives of the multiple victims; 2) perhaps most serious challenge, however, is the fact that Mexico continues to lack a clear understanding of the distinction between national security and public security, which in turn represents an obstacle to the formulation a broader and comprehensive security strategy to confront insecurity.

The conceptual confusion mentioned above is evident in the fact that discussion of security matters, on behalf of the new administration, is led by the new Secretary of Public Security and Citizen Protection who, far from circumscribing himself to law enforcement issues, is dealing with matters that involve the armed forces. For instance, the new administration has proposed the creation of a “National Guard” to confront crime. The idea behind this initiative is to merge military, naval and federal police forces under military control, and this has also faced resistance from legislators, academia and civil society groups. Moreover, Mexico’s civil intelligence agency has been relocated from the Ministry of the Interior to the already mentioned Secretary (because of accusations of political espionage), which means that national intelligence will be circumscribed to criminal intelligence at a time when Mexico is increasingly exposed to developments abroad, as attested by the caravan of Central American immigrants traversing the country in route to the United States.

2. Main themes

a) In the absence of a clear understanding about the concept of security, the measures the new government in Mexico is to implement to combat insecurity will not be effective.
b) Mexico requires an understanding of the difference between national security issues and public security challenges in order to resort to the correct tools in its toolbox.
c) The incoming government is concerned with restoring the equilibrium between coercive and non-coercive measures to deal with insecurity, but that objective might not be enough to succeed if confusion about objectives, instruments and strategy prevails.

3. Objectives

a) To contribute to the understanding of Mexico´s security context in order to be able to differentiate between national and public security challenges.
b) To be able to identify the tools at the service of the State to deal with specific security challenges.