President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said that if the National Guard passes to the Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena) it will continue to be a civilian institution despite the fact that it is within a military structure and its elements and commanders are military.
“It will continue to be a civilian institution depending on the Ministry of National Defense and we will wait for each other, I have a moral obligation to defend this point and I will continue to do so.”
He says @lopezobrador_ that if the @GN_MEXICO_ goes into @SEDENAmx it will remain a “civil institution”… despite the fact that its elements are military and the commanders as well. pic.twitter.com/dATj9Jj8o4
— Animal Politico (@Pajaropolitico) August 9, 2022
The president said that the constitutional reform initiative will be presented, and in case it does not approve in Congress, a legal mechanism will be sought so as not to violate the Constitution and it can be approved that the National Guard be transferred to the Sedena.
Read: With agreement on National Guard, AMLO skips the Constitution and Congress and favors military approach: experts
“The Judiciary will be the one who decides whether it is constitutional or not”
López Obrador assured that the Judicial Branch will be the one who decides whether or not it is constitutional for the National Guard to pass to the Sedena and denied that the decree he plans is an authoritarian act.
Is governing on the basis of decrees and agreements not authoritarian?” one of the reporters asked him during the morning conference.
“No. If there is a violation of the Constitution for that there is the Judicial Branch (…), he is in charge and no longer depends as before on the president. Before the Legislative Branch and the Judicial Branch depended on the Executive, this was the simulation, the Constitution was respected in the form and violated in the background, the power of the powers was the head of the Executive, the president, now it is no longer so. ”
When questioned about the decision to pass the public security tasks of the National Guard to the Army through a decree, @lopezobrador_ denies that it is an authoritarian form of government and that if there are violations of the Constitution “that is what the Judiciary is for.” pic.twitter.com/DKZWoQu0Nd
— Animal Politico (@Pajaropolitico) August 9, 2022
“So, I’m going to send a bill for constitutional reform, but I’m going to do the same thing I did with the reform of the electricity law. Since I know the Conservatives are not working, they reject everything, they are on strike, we are not going to possibly have an absolute majority, two-thirds. They’re going to go to the Supreme Court to challenge, to say that the law that we’re going to present to Congress is unconstitutional.
Yesterday, the president announced a controversial agreement for the public security functions of the National Guard to pass completely to the Sedena. The controversy lies in the fact that, previously, López Obrador had announced a constitutional reform so that the Guard, still of a civilian nature, passes to the Sedena after approval of Congress. But with the presidential announcement, the conversion of the Guard as a military body would be done regardless of whether or not a reform was approved in the Legislature.
Organizations warned that the president’s plan would be contrary to the Constitution. The rejection of the National Guard becoming part of the Sedena is based on the argument that militarizing the public security strategy has generated more violence in the country.
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