Mexican law enshrines military’s role in drug war

Measure conflates domestic law enforcement, national defense

MEXICO CITY –– Thousands of protesters marched against it. Hundreds of human rights groups implored lawmakers to reject it. Even the United Nations warned of its dangers.

But Friday, Mexico’s Congress approved the Law of Internal Security, which gives the military broad new powers and solidifies its central role in the country’s drug war.

President Enrique Peña Nieto is expected to sign the legislation despite criticism that it could fuel more violence.

In many ways, the measure enshrines into law what has been happening in practice for more than a decade.

It was late 2006 when President Felipe Calderón launched Mexico’s war on drugs by sending thousands of troops to his home state of Michoacan, where powerful cartels were battling for turf. Military officers were regarded as less corrupt than poorly trained local and state police forces, some of whom collaborated with criminal groups, and in the subsequent years many thousands more soldiers and marines were deployed across the country.

The strategy has continued under the current president. Military officers patrol streets, operate checkpoints and detain suspects. But all this time, the military hasn’t had legal authority to carry out law enforcement inside Mexico’s borders.

The new law allows the president to deploy federal troops for military operations inside Mexico without the approval of Congress. The law also defines domestic law enforcement as a national defense issue, meaning that information about military operations could be classified.

Mexico is on track to record more homicides in 2017 than in any year since authorities began publishing statistics 20 years ago.