Mexico's Police: Many Reforms, Little Progress
esofoto C hez / Pro C án s nrique Castro nrique Castro e A convoy of Federal Police vehicles Credit: Photo passes through Morelia, the capital of Michoacán. Mexico's Police Many Reforms, Little Progress By Maureen Meyer For more than two decades, successive Mexican administrations have taken steps to create more professional, modern, and well-equipped police forces. While these reforms have included some positive elements, they have failed to establish strong internal and external controls over police actions, enabling a widespread pattern of abuse and corruption to continue. Recognizing the need for stronger controls over Mexico’s police, this report reviews Mexico’s police reforms, with a specific focus on accountability mechanisms, and provides recommendations for strengthening existing police reform efforts in order to establish rights-respecting forces that citizens can trust. WOLA Washington office on Latin america MAY 2014 2 Mexico's Police: Many Reforms, Little Progress Introduction now-defunct Ministry of Public Security (Secretaría de Seguridad Pública, SSP). The CNDH recommendation “Forgive us, this isn’t against you, it’s just that certified that the men had been arbitrarily detained those at the top are asking me for results.”1 and tortured. In early 2014, the Federal Attorney General’s OfficeProcuradur ( ía General de la On August 11, 2010, Rogelio Amaya Martínez, along República, PGR) used the international guidelines for with four other young men, was outside the house of the documentation of torture, known as the Istanbul a friend in Ciudad Juárez when two trucks of Federal Protocol, to examine all five men. Based on this Police agents drove by.
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