Breathe
By Sophia Huett
The arrests of drug dealers are achieved through patrols; the arrest of criminal leaders is only possible through intelligence work.
In the construction of an ideal civilian security institution for the country, with a budget of 24 billion pesos per year and 126,000 members, according to figures reported by INEGI, of the 2,717 detainees in 2023, 22 were for organized crime.
Are 22 members of organized crime too many or too few? It depends on the level of leadership and its impact; judging by the current situation, they are few.
Violence in Mexico is caused by a handful of people, compared to the rest of the population, but with high firepower. They are the generators of violence, the most visible part of the criminal structures.
More homicides mean more generators of violence. How did we get to this point? Lack of high impact arrests due to lack of investigation and intelligence work, corruption, availability of firearms, immaculate economic capacity of criminals, as well as wide mobility on federal highways and other communication routes.
And the scenario is even more complex: from what is said, such as alleged kidnappings of young people as recruits for organized crime, to what is proven, such as the "importation" of ex-military, ex-police and ex-marines from other nations who arrive in Mexican territory paid by criminal organizations.
The lack of strategic information and "flaws" in the migration system cause these high-risk profiles to enter as tourists.
Did investigation and intelligence capabilities ever exist in Mexico from a civilian institution? Yes, and they still exist in the Federal Ministerial Police. But they also existed in the Intelligence, Investigation and Anti-Drug areas of the Federal Police. Were they effective? Yes, at least during 12 years the arrests exceeded tens of thousands and the list of generators of violence and criminal leaders would be even longer to recount.
What happened to many of those personnel trained in Mexico and foreign agencies such as the FBI and the DEA? They received a letter saying something like: "Your services are no longer required by what is no longer your Institution, because we do not want you to be part of it".
Can this challenge be met and overcome in the current federal administration? Everything indicates that yes. Although Article 21 of the Constitution establishes that the National Guard, the Public Prosecutor's Office and the police are the institutions with the capacity to investigate crimes, the current Secretary of Security, Omar García Harfuch, proposes the strengthening of the Secretariat of Public Security itself to develop investigation and intelligence and to cooperate with the prosecutors' offices in the preparation of investigation files, together with mechanisms for the coordination of intelligence agencies, both federal and local.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of the company. Opinion 51.
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