Mexican militarization: overwhelming numbers

Members of the Mexican Federal Police in riot gear redeploy after guarding the National Palace during a small protest last month. (photo by Jordan Green)

By Peter A. Geniesse

It was a sunny, tranquil day in the zócolo. Tourists, vendors, peasants and politicians were milling about one of the world’s largest city plazas. If the stones could speak, they’d tell of Cortez and of the ruins of what had been the grandest set of temples and palaces of the Aztec Empire back in the 16th century.

Mass was underway in the massive Metropolitan Cathedral, started in the 1520s. Visitors were in awe of the Templo Mayor ruins nearby, the sacred Aztec site destroyed by the Spaniards. Over at the National Palace, it was government business as usual.

Suddenly, the murmur of the noonday crowds on Feb. 18 was interrupted by the cacophonic sounds of a group of “protesters” as they entered Mexico City’s Plaza de la Constitución. All eyes in the square flitted from the marchers, who waved political banners, to a squadron of federal police in riot gear prepared to squelch the demonstration.

There was no confrontation. The marchers moved through the square without incident and onto a side street. But the federal police, nearly 100 of them, with helmets and facemasks, wielding fiberglass shields and batons, were ready for battle.

Such is the nervous nature of a nation which sometimes seems on the brink of chaos. Mexico has become increasingly militarized, but unlike the bloody confrontations with political protesters of the not-too-distant past, the response now is to overwhelm the potential foes with numbers, rather than brute force.

A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City noted that often in the past Mexican militia used excessive force in quelling demonstrations. The tactic now is to have a commanding police presence. Sometimes, he added, there are more police than protesters.

Mexican citizens – as well as the world at large – recall the brutal, repressive responses by the military to demonstrations in the capital and throughout the country. There still are lingering scars from the crackdown of the teachers’ strike in Oaxaca in 2006. And nearly everyone remembers the brutal response to the Zapatista standoff in Chiapas in 1994 over NAFTA.

There’s a huge challenge to keeping the peace today, especially along the frontier with the United States. It’s the war on drugs, and in the past year or so 7,000 people, including about 500 police, army and public officials, have been murdered by the three competing drug cartels.

Mexican President Felipe Calderón in February committed 45,000 troops to combat the scourge. The border cities have a heavy military presence, and that has caused concern among the populace, who both fear the cartel violence and are upset by the armed-camp image. Thousands recently took to the streets to protest the situation on the border.

The United States, too, is concerned by Mexico’s fragile governance as well as its own security on the border and beyond. This has led to what’s called the Mérida Initiative, a $1.4 billion, multi-year plan aimed to combat the drug wars through training and equipment, including helicopters and surveillance planes.

This drastic measure is not without its critics who see it as another threat to Mexican sovereignty by its First World neighbor to the north.

Peter A. Geniesse is a journalist in Neenah, Wis.