Mexican Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection Omar García Harfuch. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

By KELIN DILLON

On Monday, Nov. 11, the Mexican Senate’s Public Security, Constitutional Affairs, and Legislative Studies Committees unanimously approved President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo’s (CSP) initiative to strengthen the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection (SSPC), led by Secretary Omar García Harfuch.

Through the modifications to Article 21 of the Mexican Constitution, the SSPC – as well as the National Guard and the police – will have the power to investigate crimes alongside the Public Prosecutor’s Office.

According to the legislation, the SSPC “will be responsible for coordinating the national intelligence system in matters of public security, in the terms established by law, and may coordinate actions of the three levels of government through the institutions responsible for public security, which must provide the information available on the matter, following the law.”

Now, the SSPC will be able to coordinate with other elements of Mexico’s National Security System to gain intelligence for the “processing, dissemination and exploitation of data and information that each institution has about the capabilities and vulnerabilities of various stakeholders, thus allowing crime investigation to be based on intelligence, strategic information, and data analysis, taking advantage of available technological advances.”

The initiative also included guarantees of control and monitoring of federal funds allocated to the SSPC for public protection and security.

“The trust we are placing in this agency today by voting in favor of this ruling does not represent a blank check,” said Citizen’s Movement Senator Luis Donaldo Colosio. “This agency is being called upon to transform forever how crimes are investigated and prosecuted and to combat impunity in our country.”

The reform notably passed with full support from both Sheinbaum’s in-power National Regeneration Movement (Morena) and opposition parties, including the conservative National Action Party (PAN) and Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), demonstrating a unified front in the pursuit of public security.

“We will also vote in favor of this reform to Article 21 for two fundamental reasons,” said PAN Senator Ricardo Anaya. “First, it emphasizes something key if we want to pacify the country: the investigation of crimes and because it establishes coordination under