translated from Spanish: Insecurity is Mexico’s biggest problem, says Mexican security minister

Insecurity is Mexico’s biggest problem, today said the Secretary (Minister) of Security and Citizen Protection, Alfonso Durazo, in asking federal police to make a single front to build peace. In commemorating the 91st anniversary of the Federal Police, Durazo defended the creation and start of National Guard operations as the Mexican government’s commitment to insecurity.

To nurture the ranks of the National Guard, the government was forced to turn to soldiers, naval officers and federal police, explained the Secretary of Security at Federal Police facilities in the country’s capital. The anniversary event of the Federal Police was held in the framework of the protests initiated since last week by agents of that corporation dissatisfied with their change to the National Guard, created by congress this year at the request of President Andrés Manuel Manuel López Obrador.

On July 3rd, the non-conforming officers closed roads and took access to the main base of the Federal Police, rejecting their membership in the National Guard, fearing losing their labor rights as seniority, police degree or payment of bonds risk. The launch of the new body marks the extinction within 18 months of the Federal Police, formed in July 1928 with only a squad of road police and which over the decades became a corporation of 36,000 officers.” The situation of insecurity that our country goes through demands to strengthen the state’s public security institutions again and create the National Guard with all the wealth inherited from the institutions that have preceded it,” said the secretary of Mr. Durazo reiterated that no Federal Police officer will be fired and added that those who are not transferred to the National Guard may be placed in ten other security agencies. 



Original source in Spanish