Federal Police (Mexico)

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The Federal Police ( Spanish Policía Federal , short PF ) is a police service organ of the government in Mexico , which is now directly subordinate to the Secretaría de Seguridad Pública (SSP).

History and tasks

Established as Policía Federal Preventiva

The PF was composed in December 1998 as Policía Federal Preventiva (PFP, German: Federal Protection Police ) under President Ernesto Zedillo with the aim of maintaining internal security from military and police components of the federal government and legitimized in January 1999. Approx. 5,000 men came from the military , especially from the 3rd Brigade of the Military Police . On the police side, the Policía Federal de Migración (German: Federal Immigration Police ) with around 1,500 officers and the Policía Federal de Caminos y Puertos (German: Federal Police for Roads and Ports) with around 4,000 officers joined the PFP. The Policía Fiscal Federal (German: Federal Finance Police ) and the intelligence department of the Mexican intelligence service Centro de Investigación y Seguridad Nacional were incorporated.

The tasks of the PFP included A. in:

  • Preservation of freedoms, public order and public peace
  • Combating and preventing crimes that are sanctioned by federal law
  • Protection and control of e.g. B. borders, customs stations, traffic routes, airports and seaports, communication facilities, federal institutions
  • upon request, support of other security forces in the event of disasters, riots or other emergency situations
  • Acquisition, storage and evaluation of information for combating crime.

The responsibility of the PFP lay primarily in preventing criminal offenses, and less so in investigating them. The Agencia Federal de Investigación (German: Federal Investigation Authority) was responsible for criminal prosecution .

The Policía Federal Preventiva was structured militarily, since many members came from the armed forces , military mindsets and values ​​were incorporated.

Restructuring to the Policía Federal

The Policía Federal Preventiva was supposed to bring together different police units that had previously belonged to different ministries. This project was even considered a failure by the police chief of the PFP, José Luis Figueroa Cuevas, mainly because of rivalries between the members of the various predecessor organizations. The PFP was also affected by corruption and legal violations.

As a result, the PFP was merged with the Agencia Federal de Investigación in 2009 and renamed the Policía Federal . This left only one police organization at federal level. The area of ​​responsibility was expanded accordingly to include investigative tasks. Together with the military takes the Policía Federal on Mexican Drug War part.

structure

Policía Federal vehicles at a parade in Tepic

The Policía Federal consists of the following departments:

  • División Antidrogas : Combating drug-related crime
  • División Científica : scientific and technical department
  • División de Fuerzas Federales : Department of the emergency services
  • División de Inteligencia : Center for Enlightenment
  • División de Investigación : Investigation Department
  • División de Seguridad Regional : Monitoring the state of public safety
  • Secretaría General : General Secretariat
  • Unidad de Asuntos Internos : Unit for internal affairs

In 2010 the Federal Policía had about 35,000 officers. A Comisionado General (chief representative), who is appointed directly by the Mexican President, heads the institution with extensive competencies. Maribel Cervantes Guerrero succeeded Facundo Rosas Rosas in February 2012, who had held this position since 2009.

criticism

Corruption, links to organized crime, illegal enrichment and unjustified use of force are generally a major problem for the Mexican police. The freedom of action and the operations of the PF and PFP have also been criticized several times in the past, as there have been considerable human rights violations in some cases . In 2003, 2,200 officers left the PFP because they were charged with criminal offenses. After President Felipe Calderón took office in 2006, a. Removed all 34 regional commanders from the PFP. In 2010, 4,600 Policía Federal officers were dismissed for corruption , 13% of the total.

The military component is also controversial, as Article 129 of the state constitution prohibits the use of the military inside in peacetime.

Individual evidence

  1. a b DECRETO por el que se expide la Ley de la Policía Federal Preventiva y se reforman diversas disposiciones de otros ordenamientos legal. (PDF; 48 kB) In: Diario Oficial de la Federación. Cámara de Diputados, January 4, 1999, accessed April 15, 2012 (Spanish, legal text).
  2. a b c d e f Niels A. Uildriks: Implementing Human Rights in Police and Judicial Reform Under Democratization. (English) Lexington Books, no location 2010, ISBN 978-0-7391-2893-0 , pp. 63–66 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  3. ^ A b c Marcos Pablo Moloeznik: The militarization of public security in Mexico: A representation from the point of view of the university. In: Workbooks of the Latin America Center. No. 77, 2002. Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, ISSN  0939-3293 , pp. 3–9 ( PDF version (144 kB) at Cibera  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically defective Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. )@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.cibera.de  
  4. a b DECRETO por el que se expide la Ley de la Policía Federal. (PDF; 98 kB) In: Diario Oficial de la Federación. Cámara de Diputados, June 1, 2009, accessed April 15, 2012 (Spanish, legal text).
  5. Policía Federal - official website. (No longer available online.) Secretaría de Seguridad Pública, February 27, 2012, archived from the original on December 1, 2014 ; Retrieved April 15, 2012 (Spanish).
  6. a b Alex Gertschen: Morals for the war with no foreseeable end. How important are the arrests and killings of criminal Capi in the Mexican drug war? In: NZZ Online. Neue Zürcher Zeitung AG, September 6, 2010, accessed on April 6, 2012 .
  7. ^ Mexico Names First Female Chief of Federal Police Justice in Mexico, February 13, 2012
  8. Markus-Michael Müller: Governing through (in) security? The role of the police in the context of limited statehood in Mexico. In: Periphery. Journal for Politics and Economics in the Third World, Volume 26, Issue 104, December 2006, pp. 507-512
  9. 2010 Human Rights Report: Mexico. In: 2010 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. US Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, April 8, 2011, accessed on April 15, 2012 (English): “According to CNDH, the government entities with the greatest number of human rights complaints filed against them were SEDENA , the Mexican Institute for Social Security (IMSS), the Federal Police, and the PGR. "
  10. Yaotzin Botello: Mexico's Drug War: The President's Show. In: SPIEGEL ONLINE. SPIEGELnet GmbH, August 12, 2011, accessed on April 6, 2012 .
  11. ^ Jorge I. Domínguez, Rafael Fernández de Castro: The United States and Mexico: Between Partnership and Conflict. (English) 2nd edition. Routledge, New York / Oxon 2009, ISBN 978-0-4159-9219-0 , p. 167 ( limited preview in Google book search)

Web links