Photo: Francisco Canedo/Xinhua

By KELIN DILLON

As Mexico’s National Guard (GN), created by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), has received a higher and higher budget every year since its inception — 922 million pesos in 2019, 4.82 billion pesos that was grew to 21.73 billion pesos in 2020, and 35.67 billion pesos in 2021 — many have raised concerned about the lack of public transparency and accountability on what exactly the funds are used for, including the organization Mexicans against Corruption and Impunity (MCCI).

In the recent budget presented for 2022, the federal government has planned to allocate some 112.5 billion pesos to the National Guard, more than triple what it received the year previous and higher than the entire budget given to the Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena) itself.

Despite such high figures, the National Guard does not report any information about the barracks it has supposedly built, the land purchased for the purpose of the barracks’ construction, or its purchases of weaponry, vehicles or equipment.

The MCCI likewise indicated how many of the National Guard’s employed positions are not actually on record as belonging to the organization, but instead had been transferred by Sedena from the Military Police to the National Guard, with only 41 percent of the positions filled at the National Guard being paid for by its own budget.

“There are 59,396 staff that ‘belong’ to the institution, but do not have an official position there,” the MCCI indicated.

“Since the birth of the organization and to this date, a scheme has been maintained in which the military elements of the National Guard are only civilians in name, since their payroll and assignment are kept within the Armed Forces.”