Regulating the Military's Role

The Senate is taking a look at a potentially significant change to the role of the military in domestic security. According a draft of a new bill, the army would only be able to operate in entities in which the state government requested its deployment. To trigger the deployment, the governor would then have to demonstrate that the state and municipal forces were overwhelmed by organized crime. The time frame of the army's presence would be strictly defined, and the CNDH would be more closely involved in keeping tabs on the army's operation. This seems like an improvement, though the ultimate goal for the use of the army should be zero (which would require a large and capable federal police agency, a goal that remains elusive), and one wonders whether this bill would have the unintended impact of making the Calderonian size of the military's role in domestic security a permanent feature of Mexican society.