Militarised police
On a recent trip to an electrical store just round the corner – I needed an aerial so I can start watching local TV – I was greeted at the entrance by a Mexican soldier, M16 and all. Slightly strange occurrence in the upmarket streets of Polanco to see a group of about seven soldiers patrolling.
Bar Northern Ireland, I cannot think of the UK military being deployed in the role of a police force (although the UK military have been used as firemen during strikes). I presume that the military’s role, trained for conflict against an armed enemy, is very different to that of the police, who try to use minimal force to keep public areas safe.
But in Mexico, the army has been widely deployed domestically to help combat gangs and narcos. Not only is this to shore up numbers, but I think in many states and cities, the local police have been so corrupted that they are no longer effective. There is also a militarised police force, known as the Gendarmeria, which was created in 2013, to operate alongside the Federal Police. Again, they are hard to miss.
I have had two interesting experiences involving the Mexican army. Firstly, last September my girlfriend and I were in Baja California. In the middle of nowhere, we were driving along a dust track trying to find a beach (which turned out to be one of the most beautiful I have ever been on) when we came around a corner and were ordered to stop by about twenty soldiers in a few Humvees. They asked to see our passports and then did a search of our little Hyundai. Obviously they were looking for drugs, but it all seemed a bit forceful, threatening and unnecessary. And we were travelling south, so against the natural flow of the drug trade.
The second encounter was in Acapulco. We were not stopped, but one could not notice the vast number of soldiers patrolling the city. Unfortunately Acapulco, once a Hollywood hangout, is slipping deeper and deeper into the grip of narcos. The city is in Guerrero state, one of Mexico’s most dangerous, and is reportedly one of the top 5 most murderous cities outside of a warzone. We were there watching the famous cliff divers, one of Acapulco’s most famous sites, and the crowd was heavily protected.
The other thing you notice about the army (and the police), is that all their hardware is from the U.S. Humvees, Chevrolets, M16, etc. This seems obvious, the U.S. being the giant arms dealer that it is, but apparently it has not always been the case. Suspicious of U.S. meddling in the country, Mexico has often looked elsewhere for its weapons. During the last couple of years, however, Mexico has signed over $1 billion in military equipment deals with its northern neighbour (someone is the States is making a lot of money). This is due to greater cooperation between the two countries on the drug war and Mexico’s need to modernise its military forces. It will be interesting to see if Trump, if appointed president, has any problems allowing arms deals to go ahead with Mexico.
