Federal Police mutiny in Ciudad Juarez

On the weekend 248 members of the Federal Police mutinied in the Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez, arresting and beating four of their senior officers after excusing them of links with illegal drugs trade. The rebel members of the Federal Police conducted a raid on a hotel room of Comandante Salomon Alarcon aka “el Chaman”, and found illegal firearms, cocaine, marijuana and suspicious photos. The confrontation that continued outside the hotel became heated as armed Federal Police officers accompanied by news reporters surrounded those accused and asked them to explain themselves. Some members of the Federal Police justified their actions to the news cameras. They accused the commanders of taking payment from drug traffickers, and participating in extortion, kidnap and executions in the city. The corruption and misconduct of their commanders puts the lives of the Federal Police in danger - last week an officer was kidnapped and dismembered - which meant that the situation became very hostile and at one point it looked like the corrupt commanders would be lynched. Later the authorities announced that the four accused had been dismissed of their posts and investigations into their supposed links with organised crime were ongoing. The 248 members of the Federal Police were also being investigated for irregular conduct. There are 5000 Federal Police deployed in Ciudad Juarez along with a large military contingent. However attacks on civilians and on members of the security forces have continued unabated to the point where the citizens of Juarez came to the conclusion that the people who were sent to protect them were getting paid off by the drug cartels. Other officers pointed out that their the accused commanders also encouraged their men to abuse and rob members of the public. The event that seemed to have initiated the confrontation was the arrest of a Federal Police office for possession of drugs, which his colleagues say were planted on him because he confronted his commanders. Others testified that the officers under the command of the four accused were told that if they tried to protest they would have drugs planted on them, some were even threatened with execution. One of the Police officers told news reporters that on certain days they were not allowed out of their barracks because “something was going to happen” and that was when the cartels would carry out their operations.

These latest events come as a major blow to the government in their fight against the cartels. Because of the corrupt nature of the Local and State Police the Federal Police have spearheaded the fight against drug trafficking and specialist measures and training have been put in place to reduce their corruptibility. On Friday at the final day of a meeting of the Association of Mexican Municipalities, authorities released a statement that said by their calculations an estimated 100 million dollars are paid to corrupt police officers by drugs cartels a month.

Last week the Mexican President announced - in the wake of new figures stating that 28000 people have been killed in the last 4 years because of the war on drugs – that a new strategy needs to be debated. In the wake of this the ex-president Vicente Fox said yesterday that he fully supports the President but he went further and said he believes the solution to the problem is for Mexico to legalise drugs. In his blog the ex-president says that he is in favour of legalising the production, sale and distribution of drugs in order to break up the economic structure of the drug cartels. Fox justified his statement by saying that other countries that have relaxed drug laws have not seen a definite increase in consumption.

The problem lies in the fact the USA’s hunger for cocaine and cannabis is still as strong as ever and the lobbying power of the National Rifle Association means that assault rifles remain easy to purchase and smuggle over the border into Mexico. Over the last four years the Mexican government has tried a hard line military strategy but this has only lead to more violence. The Mexican government seems to be stuck in between a rock and a hard place where the way out – probably much to the US’s disapproval – might be to legalise drugs.