The militarization of Tamaulipas and Rurales Legality in Question

by Chivís Martínez for Borderland Beat

The Enrique Peña administration Indicates that it seeks to militarize the state of Tamaulipas.  While Announcing the division of the state into four areas, each with its own commander and force.   This comes after the denial that there was any plan to militarized Tamaulipas.

The Interior Minister, Miguel Angel Osorio Chong, announced a” new era in security strategy”, highlighting three goals for the state;

1. Disrupt the composition and organization of criminal gangs
2. Seal the route of illicit trafficking, substances, weapons and money
3. Ensure efficient and reliable local institutions.

Osorio Chong says the strategic action will divide Tamaulipas into four areas that remain under the "special command" of the Secretaries of Defense and Navy Navy Mexico, areas are; Border, Coast, Central and South .

Segob, the author of this strategy explained other measures being planned that will divide the state, such as installing four special prosecutors for receiving and handling complaints.

Other measures are; to strengthen coordination with other levels of government,  step up surveillance at airports, ports, customs and  establishing a federal  Police Training Institute and Research to continue debugging the local police.  The state attorney announced that will have a complete "purification" of its elements.  The operation, says the government, will last 3 or 4 years

The United States of Mexico, are constitutionally designed for autonomy, much as the United States of America.  The few announcements of this plan has not  revealed if the state requested a  federal government  take over, and what is the cooperation of same.  The action could be out of the bounds of constitutionally.  This is a stance EPN has adapted before in Michoacán.

As reported earlier this week, there are issues with the constitutionally of the Fuerza Rural group, (Rurales) of Michoacán.  Both of the state and federal governments.  

Posted by “Pepe”

The consensus in the Michoacán State Legislature is that the new Fuerza Rural is illegal, since state enabling legislation has not yet been passed:

"Michoacán state law does not allow for a State Rural Police Force, so what these autodefensas have been converted into is illegal, unless they're created under the laws governing the federal defense forces, say state legislative leaders.

The Chairmen of both the State Legislature's Constitution Committee and the Legislature's Justice Committee, Sebastián Naranjo Blanco and Selene Vásquez Altorre, respectively, reached this conclusion about the illegality of the Fuerzas Rurales that began operating Monday."

And Selene Vásquez, Chair of the State Legislature's Justice Committee agrees. She jokes that the Fuerza Rural is completely illegal, but "we don't have to worry because these guys are capable of showing up tomorrow with a new law to legalize them, and then try to pass it that same day, like they did with the asset forfeiture law."

She goes on to stress that these new Fuerza Rural haven't been tested or checked in anyway.  And that the Mando Único pushed by Castillo is very unclear and meeting a lot of resistance from state mayors."

Vásquez was correct,  today Michoacán governor Fausto,  in effect concedes to the illegality of Rurales, by issuing a decree attempting to legalize them.

And my friend “J Lopez” weighs in with:

“There are serious questions about EPN's authority under the Mexican constitution to appoint Castillo in the first place. There is a process in the constitution to remove state authorities and have the feds take over, but it requires a request from the state plus action by the federal legislature.

EPN didn't follow this process, instead appointing Castillo and sending in the military by presidential decree. Curiously, the state authorities are still in place and seem to be sharing power with the feds, although Castillo has the ostensible authority to override state authority. There is no constitutional authority for EPN to do it this way.

Of course, no matter what "political analysts" say, the Mexican supreme court is still an extension of the executive (EPN), so it is very unlikely that anybody will challenge EPN's decree. Yesterday, the media announced that EPN has begun to militarize Tamaulipas. The feds have divided the state into four sections, each under a different military commander, to pacify the state. It is still unclear whether this time the governments are observing constitutional protocol, but I doubt it. Nobody will challenge it, anyway. In fact, in Tamps the feds have announced they will remove the Ministerios Publicos because they are totally corrupt.

Just about a month ago, both federal and state authorities were denying that there were any plans to militarize Tamaulipas, but here we go. Tamaulipas does not have autodefensas like Michoacán, so the job will be more difficult for the feds because they will have to recruit manpower to create paramilitary forces if they choose to go the Michoacan route. As you may recall, when questioned by Aristegui, Dr. Mireles said that he agreed with former judge Garzon that the autodefensas movement, especially with Pitufo and the "Fuerzas Rurales", was going the way of Colombia.

Pitufo's groups are now sponsored, armed and supported by the government, which makes them identical to Colombia's paramilitary groups.

This was not the case when Mireles and Mora started the movement."