@Cuartoscuro
On March 4th, US Democratic legislators expressed concern over militarization in Mexico and the use of the military for “domestic tasks” by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, as well as his statements “attacking human rights defenders and journalist.”
The members of congress trusted the Biden government to place human rights at “the heart of policy towards Mexico”, and to support investigations into forced disappearances in the country, to “punish those responsible and prevent repetition of these crimes.”
This petition is focused on the review of part of the security aid granted to Mexico, considering that the militarization of the country “has resulted in human rights abuses without being able to weaken the drug cartels.” In the letter sent by themembers, they indicate that “the worsening security situation should make us rethink certain aspects of the United States’ security assistance to Mexico.”
“We note with concern that, for the moment, the Mexican president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has deepened the Army’s participation in surveillance at the national level, while deploying his new National Guard (…) for tasks related to immigration and other domestic security functions” for which they ask the Secretary of the United States, Antony Blinken to identify “ways to encourage” AMLO’s government to “fulfill its commitment to withdraw the military by 2024”, as well as to face the “almost complete” levels of impunity, backed by the “record levels of violence in the last two years” in Mexico.
Foe more information in Spanish:
Congresistas de EU alertan por militarización en México con López Obrador(Expansión política, 5 de marzo de 2021)
Critican en Congreso de EU la militarización de AMLO (El Norte, 5 de marzo de 2021)
Congresistas de Estados Unidos critican militarización en México (Forbes, 5 de marzo de 2021)
For more information from SIPAZ:
sipazen.wordpress.com 