Preventive jail initiative/Military Plan

Preventive jail initiative. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador assured that despite opposition parties, the government is willing to release prisoners without sentence or who are innocent. “We are striving to release innocent prisoners or those who have not been sentenced. Many have not had a proper defense due to their poverty situation. For instance, there are many indigenous prisoners who were abandoned or their relatives have not had the opportunity to hire lawyers. We want to change this situation.”

Last week, the debate regarding preventive jail time held its third consecutive session at the Supreme Court. This legal framework puts alleged criminals immediately in jail for certain serious crimes. Deputy Minister of Security Ricardo Mejía Berdeja said that if preventive jail time is eliminated, it would be up to a judge to decide the sentence of those arrested, which could lead to more corruption.

After a judge decided that José Bernabé, a man accused of being the main violence generator in the state of Colima would not be processed, Berdeja pointed out the importance of preventive jail. He also explained that preventive jail time operates automatically and is not arbitrary. When attribution to a crime like feminicide, homicide, rape or organized crime is proven, at that moment prison time is properly defined. The Mexican government asked the Supreme Court of Justice to maintain preventive jail, claiming that it is fundamental for some crimes while ensuring criminals do not evade justice while in trial.

Soldiers arrested for the Ayotzinapa case. Deputy Minister of Security Ricardo Mejía reported that three militiamen have been arrested for their participation in the disappearance of students from Ayotzinapa. In addition, Mejía announced that the authorities are working on making additional arrests. “Four arrest warrants have been issued against members of the Mexican Army. To date, three of them have been executed, including the commander of the 27th Infantry Battalion.”

In 2014, during former president Enrique Peña Nieto’s administration, 43 students disappeared in Iguala, Guerrero and the government reported they were murdered by the United Warriors Cartel in Cocula. According to the past administration, it was the Iguala police who handed over the students to the criminal group. Nevertheless, since the reopening of the case with new findings incriminating Enrique Peña Nieto’s government are popping up.

According to the Undersecretary of the Interior Alejandro Encinas Rodríguez, the “historical truth” given by the government of Peña Nieto is based on the fact that the students went to Iguala to boycott the briefing of the President of the National System for Integral Family Development (DIF) of that municipality. Nonetheless, Encinas said that the mission of the students was to take over some buses and when they arrived in Iguala the president’s event had already finished. Encinas Rodríguez reported that the students were never together and that there was a special operative dispersing the students in different regions of Iguala. In addition, he said that there was cooperation between the United Warriors Cartel and the security forces of the federal, state and municipal level to ultimately disappear the students.

Expansion military plan. López Obrador called on the senators to approve the initiative to extend the military plan until 2029. “I celebrate the legislator´s attitude and hopefully the senators will act in the same way. They need to put aside their interests, partisan factions and prioritize our people first so that there can be peace.”

Last week, the president thanked deputies for approving the National Guard reform, which makes it operationally and administratively dependent on SEDENA. The reform was approved with 69 votes in favor, 50 against and an objection in a session that lasted more than 11 hours. The opposition, however, has accused López Obrador’s government of militarizing the country and is planning to file an unconstitutionality action against the reform so that it can be suspended.