Mexico Update: Addressing Police Reform and Climate Change
Mexico Update: Addressing Police Reform and Climate Change
As President Felipe Calderón’s begins his fifth year in office, security and climate change are at the forefront of his agenda.
With December 1 marking the start of President Felipe Calderón’s fifth year in office, security and climate change have been at the forefront of his agenda. At a time when violence dominates headlines, Calderón proposed a package of reforms and seeks congressional approval to create a unified police force as a path to combating narcotrafficking. His country is also playing host to the UN Climate Change Conference taking place November 30 through December 10 in Cancun. Under Calderón’s leadership, his administration is placing greater emphasis on environmental issues than his predecessors and hopes other countries will follow the lead after the UN meeting.
As Mexico hosts the COP16 talks through December 16, 2010, Calderón is pushing for climate change negotiations by shining a spotlight on steps taken in his own country. Since Calderón took office in 2006, climate change has been an integral part of his administration’s agenda. The president’s Special Climate Change Program declared that: “[T]he Government of Mexico acknowledges that climate change represents the primary global environmental challenge of this century and that, in the medium and long-term, it represents one of the greatest threats to human development and well-being.”
Mexico’s emphasis on addressing climate change comes as little surprise, given costs associated with the environmental risks it faces. According to a report http://cc2010.mx/en/climate-change/economics-of-climate-change-in-mexic… released by the Mexican government:“[C]limate change has and will continue to have significant, increasing, and non-lineal impacts in time and on the Mexican economy.” The report predicts that: “[E]conomic costs of climatic impacts by 2100 are at least three times greater than the costs of mitigating our emissions by 50 percent.” As an example, the report states that the cost of mitigating emissions by 50 percent represent 0.70 percent to 2.21 percent of GDP while the impact of climate change costs the government 4 percent of its GDP.
As a result of these startling numbers, Calderón has taken some of the most dramatic steps Mexico has seen to curb greenhouse gases and promote efficient technology in households across the country. But the policies target poverty reduction as well. A portion of the government’s Climate Change Program focuses on raising standards while helping Mexicans replace out-of-date refrigerators and air conditioning units and enforcing mandatory emissions controls for vehicles. In terms of environtmentally friendly home ownerships, since 2009 the government-run lender INFONAVIT offers Hipoteca Verde (Green Mortgage) that lowers interest rates and has thus far led to resulted in over 150,000 mortgages. INFONAVIT also launched a program providing tax credits to home owners who install solar panels and other environmentally friendly fixtures.
While Mexico has not publically announced specific proposals for the UN conference, it professed support for proposals that include: commitments by developing countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, National Appropriate Mitigation Actions by developing countries within the context of sustainable development, poverty eradication with adequate financial and technological support, establishment of monitoring, reporting and verification schemes, emissions reduction from the forest sector, recognition of adaptation as a key element of sustainable development, and improving access of developing countries to market mechanisms. The conference takes place in the state of Quintana Roo—one of Mexico’s most biologically diverse states and where more than one third of the state’s territory is protected by the country’s Protected Natural Areas Program.
As Calderón seeks new measures to fight the country’s narcotraffickers, pressure mounts for new security measures. Earlier this summer, Calderón proposed sweeping legislation to reform Mexico’s police forces. The bill, which would require a constitutional amendment known as the Mando Único de Policía Estatal (Single Command of the State Police) plans to eliminate the posts of more than 2,000 local police officers, combine them with state law enforcement agencies to report to the country’s 32 governors, and place them under federal mandate. The president argues the reforms would allow better coordination among state police forces and thus help combat crime in a unified and organized manner. Offical statistics show that more than 400 municipalities do not have an official local police force, hindering efforts to fight kidnappings, extortion, and violent crime.
Corruption continues to be an issue for Mexico’s police forces; an estimated 3,000 police officers have been dismissed due to corruption charges. The reforms, according to Calderón and his security advisors would reduce crime and corruption within the police forces. According to his security advisors, the average salary for most local police officers is about $320 a month, which makes them susceptible to bribes and other forms of corruption.
During the XXIX session of the National Council of Public Security made up of governors and members on November 18, Calderón urged members to release the appropriated $195.12 million allocated to the proposed reforms. Appropriations for other overall security measures were included in the president’s expenditure budget and allocated the largest amount ever, a total of over $1.1 billion—up 8.2 percent—from last year to combat crime in the country’s 31 states and Federal District for 2011.
But the reform does face political challenges. While some states, such as Nuevo León and Aguas Calientes, have already enacted a portion of the reform, a number of legislators and municipal leaders have voiced strong opposition to the plan as they believe it will only help municipalities that fall under the control of the president’s own political party. On November 26, more than 1,000 mayors from all political parties opposed to the law urged the Mexican Senate not to pass the bill, saying it would debilitate mayors and other local leaders. Instead, they asked for the law’s enactment only in the case of a state of emergency. They argued to strengthen the measures already in place and said the 459 percent increase in federal police budget since 1999 placed local police at a disadvantage.
While Interior Secretary Francisco Blake Mora has signaled room for compromise in order to pass the bill, the Party of the Democratic Revolution (better know by its Spanish acronym PRD) party whip, Carlos Navarrete has publicly stated it is not likely to pass through in the original form the President sent it to Congress and that there would amendments. This sentiment was echoed by the majority party’s whip, Roberto Marrufo Torres of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (known as the PRI). Both leaders have also stated that Congress is no rush to pass the bill anytime soon.
