ISSUE PAPER MEXICO: POLICE. All the sources of information contained in this document are identified and are publicly available.

Transcription

1 ISSUE PAPER MEXICO: POLICE All the sources of information contained in this document are identified and are publicly available. RESEARCH DIRECTORATE IMMIGRATION AND REFUGEE BOARD OTTAWA, CANADA September 1999

2 i This paper was prepared by the Research Directorate of the Immigration and Refugee Board on the basis of publicly available information, analysis and comment. All sources are cited. This paper is not, and does not purport to be, either exhaustive with regard to conditions in the country surveyed or conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. For further information on current developments, please contact the Research Directorate. Research completed 15 July 1999

3 ii Table of Contents MAP... iv GLOSSARY...v 1. INTRODUCTION OVERVIEW OF POLICE POWERS AND RESPONSIBILITIES LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES UNDER FEDERAL JURISDICTION PJF (Federal Judicial Police Policía Judicial Federal) PFP (Federal Preventive Police Policía Federal Preventiva) Special Prosecutor s Office for Crimes Against Health General Directorate of Security Supervision and Regulation POLICE FORCES UNDER STATE JURISDICTION (INCLUDING DF) México Distrito Federal (DF) Veracruz Jalisco Puebla Guanajuato Michoacán Nuevo León Chiapas Oaxaca Guerrero Chihuahua Tamaulipas Sinaloa San Luis Potosí Baja California Coahuila Sonora Tabasco Yucatán Morelos Durango Zacatecas Querétaro Nayarit Aguascalientes Colima POLICE MILITARIZATION INTER-AGENCY COORDINATION...21

4 iii 7. REDRESS AND INTERNAL POLICE CONTROLS...22 NOTES ON SELECTED SOURCES...25 REFERENCES...28

5 iv MAP Source: Mexico: A Country Guide 1992, p. xvi.

6 v GLOSSARY CDHDF CDHM DF INCD Judicial police LMDDH PA PGJE PGR PP Preventive police PRI PRODH Public ministry Comisión de Derechos Humanos del Distrito Federal (Federal District Human Rights Commission) Comisión de Derechos Humanos del Estado de México (México State Human Rights Commission) Distrito Federal (Federal District). Mexico City Instituto Nacional para el Combate a las Drogas (National Institute for Combating Drugs) Police attached to the attorney general s office at the state or federal level, whose work is specifically related to the investigation of crimes (AI 9 Mar. 1999, section 1; Embassy of Mexico 14 Apr. 1999; DECA Equipo Puebo 27 Apr. 1999; Rotella 1998, 98; IACHR 1998, para 323). In some states this force is called the ministerial police, because they work under the direct supervision of the public ministry (Ruiz Harrell 19 May 1999, HRW Jan. 1999, 34) Liga Mexicana por la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos (Mexican League for the Defence of Human Rights), a non-governmental organization in Mexico City concerned with human rights, affiliated with the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH), based in Paris Policía auxiliar (auxiliary police) Procuraduría General de Justicia del Estado (attorney general on the state level) Procuraduría General de la República (federal attorney general) Policía preventiva (preventive police) For the purposes of this paper, the term preventive police is used in two ways: to refer to all police forces except the judicial police; and to refer to members of municipal or (non-judicial) state police forces who are not members of a more specialized sub-division within the force, such as the traffic police or the auxiliary police. Which of the two meanings is being used should be clear from the context Partido Revolucionario Institucional (Institutional Revolutionary Party). The long-standing ruling party in Mexico Centro de Derechos Humanos Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez (Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Human Rights Centre): a non-governmental organization in Mexico City concerned with human rights, founded by the Jesuit religious order of the Catholic Church The arm of the attorney general's office that investigates and prosecutes crimes (HRW Jan. 1999, 34)

7 vi SSP Secretaría de Seguridad Pública (Secretariat of Public Security: the local government departments responsible for the police in DF and also in the state of Tabasco go by this name) Note on terminology This paper contains many Spanish terms that have been assigned unofficial English translations. The term policía can mean police officer as well as police force, and in some cases policía is a hierarchical term, designating low-ranking members of a police force. When used in this sense, the word has been translated as constable. The term constable has been chosen in order to avoid unwieldy constructions such as policeman/woman, patrolman/woman, policeperson or patrolperson, and also to avoid the term police officer. Police officer has been avoided as potentially confusing because some Mexican police forces use the Spanish word oficial to refer to members of the force who are officers as the term is commonly used in English in a military sense, i.e. high-ranking members of the force. Thus oficial has been translated as officer. The judicial police rank jefe de grupo has been translated as group leader.

8 1. INTRODUCTION This paper provides technical information on the various police forces in Mexico. Wherever possible names of police forces are provided, as is information about chains of command, ranks and institutional divisions within police forces. In the few instances in which information has been found about uniforms, weapons, vehicles and numbers of operatives, that information has been presented. Although most of the information provided is about agencies specifically called police forces, the title of section 3 refers to law enforcement agencies because an effort has been made to include information about specialized agencies that have narrowly-defined mandates, such as drugs or migration. Although security guards employed by private companies are often referred to in Spanish in Mexican and other sources as private police (policías particulares), this paper does not provide information on the private security industry. 2. OVERVIEW OF POLICE POWERS AND RESPONSIBILITIES The total number of police forces in Mexico is very large; estimates range from about 1,000 to over 4,000 (Excélsior 4 May 1998; Latin American Regional Reports: Mexico and NAFTA Report 22 Sept. 1998, 4; Ruiz Harrell 19 May 1999). There are 33 judicial police (policía judicial) forces: one federal judicial police force, 31 state judicial police forces and the Federal District judicial police force (Excélsior 4 May 1998), with a total of 24,000 members (ibid.; La Jornada 20 Aug. 1998). About 4,000 of these members are under federal jurisdiction and the remainder are under state and DF jurisdiction (Becerril 7 July 1999). Most of the remaining police forces are municipal preventive police forces (Excélsior 4 May 1998). There are over 200,000 preventative police in the country (ibid.; La Jornada 20 Aug. 1998). Mexican police forces are controlled by various government departments at the state and federal level, including the departments of Communications and Transportation, Agriculture, Livestock and Administrative Development, Comptroller, Environment, Health, and Treasury and Public Credit (Excélsior 4 May 1998). There is a basic dichotomy between judicial police and other police forces in Mexico. This dichotomy applies on both the federal and state levels, and stems from the fact that the

9 2 judicial police are attached to the attorney general s offices (Procuraduría General de la República: PGR at the federal level, and Procuraduría General de Justicia del Estado: PGJE at the state level) in the various states and in the Federal District Distrito Federal: DF (Embassy of Mexico 14 Apr. 1999; AI 9 Mar section 1; DECA Equipo Pueblo 27 Apr. 1999). The most important official role of the judicial police is to assist the attorney general s offices, specifically the public ministries (ministerios públicos) (Rotella 1998, 98; IACHR 1998, para. 323). The public ministry is the section of the federal or state attorney general's office that is responsible for investigating serious crimes and prosecuting suspects (HRW Jan. 1999, 34; IACHR 1998, para. 323). In some states the name of the police force attached to the attorney general s office has been changed from judicial police to ministerial police (policía ministerial). This change is in name only, not in function: according to Mexican criminologist Rafael Ruiz Harrell the name judicial police stems from the fact that before the 1917 constitution, certain police agents were assigned to investigative duties in which they answered to an instruction judge (juez de instrucción), whose job was not to hand down sentences (which was the role of the case judge juez de la causa), but to gather information related to the case. Since these police agents were responsible to a judge, who was an official of the judiciary, they were called judicial police. Under the 1917 constitution, the post of instruction judge was eliminated and replaced with representatives of the public ministry (Ruiz Harrell 19 May 1999). Since the promulgation of the 1917 constitution, public ministry representatives have done almost all the work that had been done by the instruction judges (Ruiz Harrell 19 May 1999). The recent move in some states to change the name of the judicial police to ministerial police is meant to reflect the long-standing fact that they work for the public ministry (ibid.; see also HRW Jan. 1999, 34). The state judicial police investigates crimes involving violations of state law (DECA Equipo Pueblo 27 Apr. 1999), and the federal judicial police investigates crimes involving violations of federal law, such as crimes involving drugs and firearms for example (Rotella 1998, 98; DECA Equipo Pueblo 27 Apr. 1999). The role of the judicial police is set out in article 21 of Mexico s constitution, which stipulates that the investigation and prosecution of crimes is the

10 3 responsibility of the public ministry, which will be assisted by a police force under its authority and immediate command (México 31 Jan. 1917). 1 Members of judicial police forces, both at the state and federal levels, often wear civilian clothes while on duty (Carmona 26 May 1999; Reding May 1995, section 6b), and when they wear uniforms they do not wear traditional-type police uniforms (Ruiz Harrell 19 May 1999); they wear specialized dark clothes (La Jornada 14 Mar. 1998; Carmona 26 May 1999; López González 20 May 1999), and t-shirts and/or jackets and baseball-type caps emblazoned with the letters PJE (for Policía Judicial del Estado) or PJF (for Policía Judicial Federal) to identify themselves as police, analogous to similar clothing sometimes worn by FBI agents in the United States (Carmona 26 May 1999; Ruiz Harrell 19 May 1999; López González 20 May 1999). In addition, judicial/ministerial police agents often use unmarked vehicles, often without licence plates (Ruiz Harrell 19 May 1999; Carmona 26 May 1999; Reding May 1995, section 6b). The vast majority of police in Mexico are not judicial police. Non-judicial police in Mexico are often referred to as preventive police (policía preventiva) (CDHM 17 June 1999), in order to distinguish them from the judical police and to indicate their primarily preventive, as opposed to investigative, role in the justice system (DECA Equipo Pueblo 27 Apr. 1999). In addition, non-judicial police forces are also often referred to as public security police, because the state and municipal government departments responsible for them are often called the directorate or secretariat of public security (for examples, see section 4, below). Preventive police forces in Mexico primarily deal with minor offences, such as violations of municipal bylaws (for example, the Government and Civic Justice Regulation Reglamento Gubernativo y de Justicia Cívica in DF, and the Police and Good Government Edict Bando de Policía y Buen Gobierno in Aguascalientes and Tijuana) (Gómez Barrera 22 June 1999; CJA Aug.-Sept. 1995). By-laws such as these define minor infractions such as disturbing the peace or drinking alcohol on the street. (Gómez Barrera 22 June 1999). If preventive police catch someone in the act of violating one of these by-laws, they take the person to a municipal judge, who may impose a fine, or a period of detention of up to 36 hours (ibid.). If preventive police catch someone in the act of committing a serious crime, the case is turned over to the public ministry, and comes under the jurisdiction of the judicial police (ibid.). The new Federal Preventive Police (Policía Federal 1 The text of the constitution can be accessed in Spanish through the Website of the lower house of Mexico s federal legislature, the Chamber of Deputies, at < >.

11 4 Preventiva: PFP), created in 1999, comes under the purview of the federal Ministry of the Interior (Secretaría de Gobernación) (Embassy of Mexico 14 Apr. 1999) (for more information on the PFP, see section 3). As a rule, police forces in Mexico carry firearms, but members of certain police forces, such as municipal traffic police and auxiliary police, are not always armed while on duty (PRODH 2 June 1999). The regulation governing police use of firearms requires that members of police forces turn in their duty firearms when they go off duty, but the Mexican human rights organization PRODH states that this regulation is not always respected, especially in the case of the Federal Judicial Police (Policía Judicial Federal: PJF) (ibid.). Information on the organization of police forces and the role of the public ministry in Mexico can also be found in Response to Information Request MEX20897.E of 23 August 1995, and the October 1997 IRB publication Mexico: Internal Flight Alternatives. Both publications are available in the IRB Regional Documentation Centres and IRB databases. Mexico: Internal Flight Alternatives is also available on the IRB Website at < >. 3. LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES UNDER FEDERAL JURISDICTION 3.1 PJF (Federal Judicial Police Policía Judicial Federal) The main law enforcement agency under federal jurisdiction is the PJF (CJA Aug.-Sept. 1995). Members of the PJF number about 4,000 throughout the country (La Jornada 20 Feb. 1999). The PJF is divided into units determined by population (CJA Aug.-Sept. 1995). Typically a city is a PJF unit, and a rural PJF unit is responsible for a large area of the countryside (ibid.). The lowest-ranking members of the PJF are called agents (agentes). Each agent reports to a group leader (jefe de grupo) 2, who in turn reports to a commander (comandante), who heads the unit (ibid.). Each commander in a given state reports to the State Commander of the Federal Judicial Police (Delegado Estatal de la Policía Judicial Federal), who in turn reports to the Director of the Federal Judicial Police in DF. The Director reports to the federal attorney general, who reports to the President of the Republic (CJA Aug.-Sept. 1995). All agents must have attained a level of education above secondary school, and must attend a one-year training course 2 While the CJA report translates jefe de grupo as assistant commander, for the purposes of this report the term will be translated as group leader.

12 5 at the training institute of the office of the federal attorney general in Mexico City (Procuraduría General de la República May 1999). 3.2 PFP (Federal Preventive Police Policía Federal Preventiva) In late 1998 the Mexican congress passed a bill creating a new federal police force, the Federal Preventive Police (New York Times 15 Dec. 1998). The decree was published in the official gazette on 4 January 1999 (Embassy of Mexico 14 Apr. 1999). The PFP is scheduled to begin functioning at full capacity with 10,000 agents in 2000 (La Jornada 1 Apr. 1999; Excélsior 9 Jan. 1999; see also The Houston Chronicle 17 Nov. 1998). Three federal police forces, i.e. the Federal Highway Police, the Fiscal Police and the Migration Police, are being unified to create the new force (La Jornada 16 Nov. 1998; New York Times 15 Dec. 1998; Excélsior 5 Jan 1999), whose role is to focus on preventing federal crimes committed on the national level and to respond to calls for help from the public ministry (La Jornada 1 Apr. 1999). In April 1999 Omar Fayad Meneses was appointed Commissioner of the PFP (La Jornada 1 Apr. 1999; Embassy of Mexico 14 Apr. 1999) and Wilfrido Robledo Madrid was appointed Assistant Commissioner of the PFP by the President of Mexico (La Jornada 1 Apr. 1999). The PFP, while not fully formed, began operation in April 1999 with a core group of 700 members working on combating kidnapping (La Jornada 5 Apr. 1999). Commissioner Fayad Meneses stated that a new unified computer database is being created for the entire country for the purposes of preventive police intelligence (ibid.). 3.3 Special Prosecutor s Office for Crimes Against Health The federal anti-drug agency, the National Institute to Combat Drugs (INCD), was abolished by presidential decree on 30 April 1997 and replaced with the Special Prosecutor s Office for Crimes Against Health (Fiscalía Especializada para la Atención de Delitos Contra la Salud) (Excélsior 2 May 1997; Clarín 2 May 1997), headed by Mariano Herran Salvatti (La Jornada 28 Mar. 1999; Excélsior 2 May 1997), the former head of the INCD (ibid.). The agency, a dependency of the federal attorney general's office, investigates and prosecutes crimes involving illegal drugs (Procuraduría General de la República 22 Sept. 1997). It has 973 agents (La Jornada 18 Feb. 1999).

13 6 3.4 General Directorate of Security Supervision and Regulation In late summer 1998 a new federal force was created, under the control of the Ministry of the Interior, called the General Directorate of Security Supervision and Regulation (Dirección General de Normatividad y Supervisión en Seguridad: DGNSS) (La Jornada 1 Sept. 1998; Mexico and NAFTA Report 22 Sept. 1998, 4; El Universal 20 Oct. 1998). Among the functions of the force is the coordination of the operations of different police forces at the federal, state and municipal levels, the issuance of firearms licences for federal employees and members of police forces, and the supervision of private security companies (Secretaría de Gobernación n.d.; Mexico and NAFTA Report 22 Sept. 1998, 4). 4. POLICE FORCES UNDER STATE JURISDICTION (INCLUDING DF) As noted above, most states have two basic groupings within the police at the state level: the state judicial police (policía judicial estatal, now called ministerial police in some states), and the public security police (policía de seguridad pública) (CJA Aug-Sept. 1995). The state judicial police are responsible for investigating serious crimes (ibid.; Secretaría de Gobernación n.d.; Rotella 1998, 98; IACHR 1998, para. 323). The remainder of this section is divided by state, and is intended to provide as much practical information as available in the sources consulted about non-federal police forces within the states, especially the names of the various police forces, organization of the police forces, and the government departments responsible for them. Much of the information was obtained from state government Internet Websites. It has not been possible to find information on all of Mexico s 31 states (32 including DF), and it has not been possible to find information on both the judicial and non-judicial branches of the police for all of the states for which information was found. The states populations as of 1997 are provided, as are the names of the states capital cities, except in the case of DF. The states are listed in declining order of population based on their populations in 1997, the last year for which statistics are available México (population: 12,222,891; capital: Toluca) 3 All population figures were accessed on 13 April 1999 from the Mexican government Website, Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografía e Informática, México: Población Total Según Entidad Federativa at < >, accessed 13 April 1999.

14 7 The state of México has a judicial police force (Estado de México 2 Apr. 1996), and the state Ministry of the Interior has a General Directorate of Public Security and Traffic (Dirección General de Seguridad Pública y Tránsito) that is responsible for the state public security (preventive) police force (ibid. 26 Dec. 1985). There are about 16,500 police in the state of México (Excélsior 4 May 1998), of whom about 15,000 are preventive and the remainder judicial (ibid.; CDHM 17 June 1999). The ranks of the public security police are constable (policía), officer (oficial) and commander (comandante) (Estado de México 26 Dec. 1985). The uniforms of the members of the state and municipal preventive police forces in México state are white and navy blue (CDHM 17 June 1999). State traffic police wear green and white uniforms (ibid.). 4.2 Distrito Federal (DF) (population: 8,520,090) DF is divided into 52 (sectores policiacos) (La Jornada 7 Mar. 1999; Alcantar 17 June 1999). DF has police precincts a judicial police force, which numbers over 3,000 members (Miami Herald 12 Dec. 1997; Cox News Service 21 Mar. 1998; Excélsior 4 May 1998; IPS 4 Sept. 1998; New York Times News Service 24 Nov. 1998). The DF public security police is divided into the preventive police (PP) and the complementary police (policía complementaria), the latter including the auxiliary police (policía auxiliar: PA) and the bank and industrial (bancaria e industrial) police (Distrito Federal 19 July 1993, Art. 5). According to a representative of the DF Secretariat of Public Security (Secretaría de Seguridad Pública: SSP), the SSP s police forces number 91,000 members, of whom 34,000 are preventive police and the remaining 57,000 are auxiliary and bank and industrial police (Alcantar 17 June 1999). The PP and the PA wear navy blue uniforms, except those in traffic departments of the respective forces, who wear brown uniforms, and the members of the Women s Unit (Unidad Femenil), who wear either (ibid.). The PA is a uniformed force which in 1996 had 434 patrol cars (La Jornada 11 Feb. 1996). The PA performs functions similar to those of the PP, but in general it is considered to provide a support role (auxiliar) to the PP (PRODH 2 June 1999). Members of the PA are assigned to tasks that involve providing police protection to specific sectors of the community, for example, guarding the premises of businesses (The Seattle Times 24 Nov. 1998; PRODH

15 8 2 June 1999; see also La Jornada 11 Feb. 1996). In addition to their more standard police work, the PA provide security services on a private basis (La Jornada 11 Feb. 1996; The Seattle Times 24 Nov. 1998). Further information on the PA can be found in Response to Information Request MEX30244.E of 9 October 1998, available in the Regional Documentation Centres, in the IRB REFINFO database, and in the IRB Website at < >. The PP are divided into the following ranks: General Superintendent (Superintendente General), First Superintendent (Primer Superintendente), Second Superintendent (Segundo Superintendente), First Inspector (Primer Inspector), Second Inspector (Segundo Inspector), Deputy Inspector (Sub-Inspector), First Officer (Primer Oficial), Second Officer (Segundo Oficial), Deputy Officer (Sub-Oficial), First Constable (Policía Primero), Second Constable (Policía Segundo), Third Constable (Policía Tercero) and Constable (Policía) (Distrito Federal 6 July 1984, Art 12). 4.3 Veracruz (population: 6,856,415; capital: Jalapa) Veracruz has a judicial police force (Procuraduría General de Justicia del Estado de Veracruz 11 June 1999a). The Veracruz judicial police has 627 members and 5 regional coordinators throughout the state, and the judicial police has 283 vehicles (ibid.). The ranks in the Veracruz PJ are regional coordinator (coordinador regional), regional commander (comandante regional), group leader (jefe de grupo) and agent (agente) (LMDDH 18 Mar. 1997). In addition to the state judicial police, Veracruz has a state public security police (PRODH n.d.). 4.4 Jalisco (population: 6,161,437; capital: Guadalajara) According to a representative of the Jalisco Investigatory Police, the state judicial police force changed its name to the investigatory police in July 1998 (Jalisco Investigatory Police 9 June 1999; see also Estado de Jalisco 15 Jan. 1998). The Jalisco Investigatory Police has about 850 agents on active police duty (operativos), and about 150 administrative staff (administrativos) (Jalisco Investigatory Police 9 June 1999). In addition to the Investigatory Police, the Jalisco state government department, called the State General Directorate of Security (Dirección General de Seguridad del Estado), is responsible for the following police bodies: the preventive police; the motorized patrol squad

16 9 (escuadrón de autopatrullas); the auxiliary police (policía auxiliar), whose duties include guarding public buildings and state property; and the support squad (escuadrón de apoyo), whose duties include riot and crowd control, and bank security in the city of Guadalajara (Estado de Jalisco 24 March 1999). 4.5 Puebla (population: 4,792,156; capital: Puebla) The state of Puebla has a judicial police force, which has approximately 900 agents on active police duty (operativos) (Puebla Judicial Police 2 June 1999; Miranda San Román 18 June 1999) and approximately 150 administrative staff (administrativos) (ibid.). In addition, the state General Directorate of Public Security and Traffic (Dirección General de Seguridad Pública y Vialidad del Estado: DGSPV) controls three main police forces: the first of these is the police force of the Directorate of Preventive Police (Dirección de la Policía Preventiva: DPP) (Miranda San Román 18 June 1999), which is state-wide. It numbers about 3,000 members, about half of whom have been lent to the city of Puebla police force for a period of three years starting in January 1999 (ibid.). This force wears black uniforms (ibid.). The second force under DGSPV jurisdiction is the police of the Directorate of Traffic Security (Dirección de Seguridad Vial). Its members do not carry guns, and their jurisdiction is restricted to traffic. Their powers of arrest are restricted to traffic violations, drunk drivers, etc. (ibid.). The state traffic police number almost 1,000, and 400 of them have been lent to the Puebla city traffic police for a three-year period, starting in January 1999 (ibid.). Members of this force wear green uniforms with white shirts (ibid.). The third force controlled by the Puebla state DGSPV is the police of the Directorate of Auxiliary Police (Dirección de la Policía Auxiliar del Estado: DPA). This is an armed force whose main duty is to guard private businesses which pay for their services. Occasionally the DPA police are called upon by the DPP (Dirección de la Policía Preventiva) police to help out (ibid.). Members of the DPA police wear navy blue uniforms, with white stripes. This force numbers (ibid.). 4.6 Guanajuato (population: 4,478,673; capital: Guanajuato) Guanajuato has a judicial police force, which numbers 342 members (López González 20 May 1999). The force is divided into groups (grupos) by district or town. In addition, the state is divided into four regions for the purpose of the operations of the state attorney general

17 10 (Procuraduría General de Justicia: PGJ), within each of which the operations of the judicial police are headed by a regional deputy coordinator (sub-coordinador) (Procuraduría de Justicia del Estado de Guanajuato n.d.a). Region A is based in León, region B is based in Irapuato, region C is based in Celaya and region D is based in San Miguel de Allende (ibid.). Francisco Javier López González is the coordinator of the state judicial police (ibid.; López González 20 May 1999). The uniform of the judicial police is dark blue military type pants and a grey t-shirt with PJE Guanajuato written on the back, and a baseball-type hat featuring the same words (López Gonazález 20 May 1999). In Guanajuato, the state Secretariat of Government is responsible for the General Directorate of Public Security (Dirección General de Seguridad Pública del Estado), and although the state s Website does not provide detailed information about specific police bodies, it does refer to the Directorate s role in reducing and preventing crime in the state and in supplying police equipment, such as vehicles, helmets and weapons, to the various police bodies in the state (Estado de Guanajuato 24 Mar. 1999; ibid. n.d.). 4.7 Michoacán (population: 3,925,450; capital: Morelia) Michoacán has a ministerial police under the state attorney general and a state preventive police force under the Directorate of Public Security and Traffic (Estado de Michoacán 27 Aug. 1998). 4.8 Nuevo León (population: 3,684,845; capital: Monterrey) Nuevo León has a ministerial police (Estado de Nuevo León n.d.; El Norte 23 Feb. 1999; ibid. 26 Apr. 1999). In addition, the state preventive police, called the public security police, contains the following sub-divisions: the youth unit (unidad juvenil), the troopers unit (unidad de elementos de tropa) 4, the radio patrol squad (escuadrón de radio patrullas), the grenadiers and anti-riot unit (unidad de granaderas y antimotines), the rescue unit (unidad de rescate), the rural police (jefatura de la policía rural) (Estado de Nuevo León 19 Jan. 1983, Arts. 31, 33, 35, 38, 42, 52) and the auxiliary police (ibid. June 1998). 4 In this context elementos de tropa refers to the rank-and-file members of the force; i.e. those who are not officers in the sense of the word as it is used to refer to high-ranking members of a military or police force.

18 11 The state public security law refers to the following ranks in the public security police: general (general), colonel (coronel), lieutenant colonel (teniente coronel), major (mayor), first captain (capitán 1), second captain (capitán 2), lieutenant (teniente), sub-lieutenant (subteniente), first sergeant (sargento 1) and second sergeant (sargento 2) (ibid.19 Jan. 1983, Art. 14). 4.9 Chiapas (population: 3,637,142; capital: Tuxtla Gutiérrez) Chiapas has a judicial police force (Estado de Chiapas 19 July 1989; ibid. 1999). In addition, it has a public security police (Estado de Chiapas 19 July 1989; La Jornada 11 June 1998), traffic police and auxiliary police (Estado de Chiapas 19 July 1989) Oaxaca (population: 3,286,175; capital: Oaxaca) Oaxaca has a judicial police force (PRODH n.d.; El Imparcial 19 Apr. 1999; La Jornada 14 May 1999). The state Public Security Directorate (Dirección de Seguridad Pública) operates three police forces which have jurisdiction throughout the state, according to an official of the directorate (Camarena Flores 29 June 1999). They are the preventive police (PP), the auxiliary police (PA), and the traffic police. These forces number about 4,700 members; all are armed while on duty (ibid.). The PP and the PA wear blue uniforms, but the PA wear shirts of a lighter shade of blue than those of the PP (ibid.). The traffic police wear brown uniforms (ibid.). The PA guard businesses, which pay the state for this service. (ibid.). Some municipalities (municipios) in the state have their own municipal traffic police, who are not armed (ibid.). Some municipalities also have their own municipal PP, who are armed in some municipalities and unarmed in others (ibid.) Guerrero (population: 2,994,365; capital: Chilpancingo) Guerrero has a judicial police force (La Jornada 12 July 1998; ibid. 28 July 1998; ibid. 15 Feb. 1999; Periódico Público 30 Oct. 1998; Reforma 5 Mar. 1999). As well, the state Directorate of Protection and Traffic, under the jurisdiction of the General Secretariat of

19 12 Government, operates a state preventive police force and a state traffic police (Estado de Guerrero 15 Feb. 1999; PRODH n.d.; Alarcón Hernández 7 July 1999). In addition, at the municipal level there is a force called the community police (policía comunitaria), which consists of police who are appointed by the citizens of their community and who receive no pay, and the neighbourhood police (policía de barrio), who are a guarding force, similar to auxiliary police in other jurisdictions, who are paid by the local residents in the areas where they perform their duties (Alarcón Hernández 7 July 1999) Chihuahua (population: 2,895,672; capital: Chihuahua) Chihuahua has a judicial police force (Procuraduría General de Justicia del Estado de Chihuahua Feb. 1998; Diario Digital 20 Apr. 1999). The force contains the following special units for: Crimes Against Life and Physical Integrity, Livestock Robbery, Sexual Crimes and Crimes Against the Family, Various Crimes, Arrest Warrants, Robberies and Assaults, Fraud, Detainees, Special Investigations, Kidnapping and Personal Security, and the Orion Group, which coordinates with the Federal Judicial Police and the municipal police on interjurisdictional matters (Procuraduría General de Justicia del Estado de Chihuahua Feb. 1998). An article in the Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua newspaper Diario Digital refers to the Ciudad Juárez municipal police as being under the overall authority of the Directorate of Municipal Public Security (Dirección de Seguridad Pública Municipal), which is further subdivided into the Operative and Preventive subdirectorates (25 Jan. 1999). In addition, the article mentions the following special groups within the Municipal Police: the canine unit, the motorcycle police, the mounted police, and the Special Unit of Preventive Investigation (ibid.) Tamaulipas (population: 2,628,839; capital: Ciudad Victoria) Tamaulipas has a ministerial police force (Procuraduría General de Justicia, Tamaulipas 1999). In addition, the state has a General Directorate of Public Security (Dirección General de Seguridad Pública), under the state Secretariat of Government, which maintains four state police forces (Lirach Gómez 15 July 1999). The rural state police (policía rural del estado) provide public security in rural areas (ibid.). Members of this force are armed and wear green uniforms; they use both green and white vehicles (ibid.). The operative corps of citizen protection (cuerpo

20 13 operativo de protección ciudadana) is similar to the rural state police, but it operates in the state s municipalities (ibid.). Members of this force are armed, wear black uniforms and use white and green vehicles (ibid.). The traffic police (tránsito y vialidad) wear brown uniforms, use white vehicles with brown stripes, and most are armed (ibid.). The traffic police operate state-wide, including in most municipalities, by arrangement with the municipal governments (ibid.). The integral police (policía integral) is a guard force whose services are paid for by businesses and residents who benefit from their service (ibid.). Members of this force are armed, wear bluish-grey uniforms and use white vehicles (ibid.). The integral police is analogous to the auxiliary police in other states and in DF (ibid.). The municipalities in Tamaulipas have their own municipal police forces, but the chief of police in each municipality is appointed by the state governor (ibid.) Sinaloa (population: 2,509,142; capital: Culiacán) Sinaloa has a judicial police force (Estado de Sinaloa 12 Mar. 1999; ibid. 4 Apr. 1986). Other police forces in the state, which are under the purview of the Citizens Protection Secretariat (Secretaría de Protección Ciudadana), include the specialized police (policía especializada) and the intermunicipal police (policía intermunicipal) (Estado de Sinaloa 12 Mar. 1999). The latter is described as a task force to help municipalities in the state with public security problems and to respond to emergencies (ibid.) San Luis Potosí (population: 2,247,042; capital: San Luis Potosí) San Luis Potosí has a ministerial police force and a state preventive police force called the General Directorate of Social Protection and Traffic (Dirección General de Protección Social y Vialidad: DGPSV ). Members of the preventive police force are armed (Díaz García 21 June 1999). Their uniforms have dark grey pants with navy blue stripes and navy blue jackets (ibid.). Their patrol cars are white with a light blue stripe (ibid.). There are 58 municipalities in San Luis Potosí, all of which have their own preventive police and most of which have their own traffic police (ibid.). Members of municipal police forces in San Luis Potosí are not armed (ibid.).

21 Baja California (population: 2,241,029; capital: Mexicali) The Baja California state judicial police force (PJE) changed its name to ministerial police in 1998 (San Diego Union-Tribune 31 Oct. 1998; see also El Cachanía 22 July 1998). There are about 300 agents of the state ministerial police in the city of Tijuana alone (Reyes Luviano 18 June 1999). They sometimes wear civilian clothes, but when they wear uniforms, they wear black clothes with the letters PGJE (for Procuraduría General de Justicia del Estado) on the back (ibid.). The entire territory of the state is covered by the five municipalities of Mexicali, Tecate, Tijuana, Ensenada and Rosarito (Inojos Robles 18 June 1999), and every municipality has its own preventive police force (ibid.; Reyes Luviano 18 June 1999). Apart from the ministerial police, there is no state police force in Baja California (ibid.; Inojos Robles 18 June 1999). In Tijuana there are two main municipal police forces: the preventive police and the auxiliary police (Reyes Luviano 18 June 1999). Members of both forces wear beige uniforms with black hats (ibid.). The preventive police are armed, but the auxiliary police are not (ibid.). The auxiliary police are identified by the word auxiliar on their badges, and they perform mainly guard duty; they are paid by local residents and businesspeople in the areas where they provide guard services (ibid.). The municipal police of Mexicali has 1,109 members in the preventive and traffic sections, all of whom are armed (Inojos Robles 18 June 1999) Coahuila (population: 2,227,305; capital: Saltillo) Coahuila has a ministerial police force (Procuraduría General de Justicia, Coahuila n.d.; LMDDH 18 Mar. 1997; Estado de Coahuila. 26 January 1996). A government report on the state Website states that in 1995, the ministerial police had 297 patrol cars and 457 firearms (ibid.). The state General Directorate of Public Security (Dirección General de Seguridad Pública: DGSP), under the jurisdiction of the state Secretariat of Government (Secretaría de Gobierno) operates a state police force which is both a preventive and a traffic police force (Villalobos Romero 30 June 1999). The 458 members of the Coahuila DGSP police are armed while on duty, and wear two types of uniforms: the dress uniform is grey with a navy blue tie and jacket; the regular uniform is navy blue with a navy blue beret (ibid.). Commanding officers wear white shirts instead of blue ones (ibid.). The force uses white vehicles (ibid.).

22 15 The state is divided into five regions for the purpose of DGSP police operations, each one headed by a commander (comandante), and the Director General of the force also holds the rank of commander (ibid.). For operative purposes, the force is divided into five subdirectorates: Administrative, Juridical, Operative, Technical and Coordination and Control (ibid.). The first two subdirectorates are headed by civilians, the others by police (ibid.) Sonora (population: 2,183,108; capital: Hermosillo) Sonora has a judicial police force (Estado de Sonora 16 Oct. 1998; Procuraduría General de Justicia del Estado de Sonora 23 Feb. 1999). Other police forces in the state include the preventive police and the traffic police, which are under exclusive municipal jurisdiction in Sonora (ibid.; Vega Cota 30 June 1999). All preventive and traffic police in the state carry guns while on duty (ibid.). Although there is no state preventive or traffic police force, the state government, through the State Coordination of Preventive Police and Traffic (Coordinación Estatal de Policía Preventiva y Tránsito), under the state Secretariat of Government (Secretaría de Gobierno), coordinates the activities of the different municipal police forces in the state (ibid.) Tabasco (population: 1,817,703; capital: Villahermosa) Tabasco has a judicial police force (Estado de Tabasco n.d.). In addition, the state has a preventive police force called the Secretariat of Public Security Police (Secretaría de Seguridad Pública: SSP) (Saucedo López 21 June 1999; Chávez Cleofas 21 June 1999). The members wear blue uniforms and drive blue cars (ibid.; Saucedo López 21 June 1999). The state traffic police, which is part of the SSP, has brown uniforms and brown cars (ibid.; Chávez Cleofas 21 June 1999). In addition, every municipality in the state has its own preventive police, but no traffic police; traffic police are under state jurisdiction only (ibid.) Yucatán (population: 1,617,120; capital: Mérida) Yucatán has a judicial police force (Estado de Yucatán 5 Dec. 1998). The state Secretariat of Protection and Traffic Control (Secretaría de Protección y Vialidad) is responsible for a state force known as the Yucatán Police (Policía de Yucatán) as well as a tourist police force (policía

23 16 turística) (ibid.). The Secretariat also provides a traffic assistance service (auxilio vial), whose members provide assistance to motorists in difficulty (ibid.) Morelos (population: 1,496,030; capital: Cuernavaca) The police force attached to the Morelos attorney general s office is known as the judicial police (Estado de Morelos 1998). The Morelos judicial police usually use dark brown cars (PRODH n.d.). There was a special group within the judicial police, called the anti-kidnapping group (grupo antisecuestros), members of which allegedly carried out kidnappings (El Universal 3 Feb. 1998; La Jornada 25 May 1998; HRW Jan. 1999, 97-99). The group was disbanded in May 1998 (PRODH n.d.). The Secretariat of Public Security and Social Readaptation (Secretaría de Seguridad Pública y Readaptación Social) is the Morelos state government department responsible for the following police bodies: the Directorate of Preventive Police (Dirección de Policía Preventiva) and the Directorate of the Industrial, Bank and Auxiliary Police (Dirección de Policía Industrial, Bancaria y Auxiliar) (Estado de Morelos 1998). The industrial, bank and auxiliary police are also known as the complementary police (policía complementaria) (Estado de Morelos 1 Sept. 1993, Art. 3) Durango (population: 1,449,036; capital: Durango) Durango has a state judicial police force (Procuraduría General de Justicia, Durango 1999; El Sol de Durango 13 Jan. 1999a; ibid. 13 Jan 1999c; ibid. 16 Jan. 1999). In addition, the city of Durango has a police force known as Protección Ciudadana (ibid. 21 Sept. 1998; ibid. 13 Jan. 1999c). Preventive police in Durango are under municipal jurisdiction, and all 39 municipalities in the state have their own armed preventive police forces (Gamero Meza 21 June 1999). There is a state traffic police force, whose members wear beige uniforms and use white and navy blue vehicles (ibid.).

24 Zacatecas (population: 1,332,683; capital: Zacatecas) Zacatecas has a ministerial police force (Dirección General de la Policía Ministerial del Estado de Zacatecas) (Estado de Zacatecas n.d.b; Notimex 19 Mar. 1999; ibid. 30 Mar. 1999). The state also has preventive police and traffic police forces (Estado de Zacatecas n.d.a) Querétaro (population: 1,297,575; capital: Querétaro) The Querétaro attorney general s office has an investigatory ministerial police force (Policía Investigadora Ministerial) (Estado de Querétaro 26 July 1998; ibid. 20 Mar. 1997, Art. 11; Rojano Esquivel 22 June 1999). The other main force in the state is the police of the General Directorate of Public Security and Traffic (Dirección General de Seguridad Pública y Tránsito) (ibid.). This is both a regular state and traffic police force, and its members wear brown uniforms and drive white and brown cars (ibid.). In addition, each of the state s 18 municipalities has its own preventive police force (ibid.). Their uniforms are blue and white uniforms, and their cars are different colours in different municipalities (ibid.). Both state and municipal preventive police carry guns in Querétaro (ibid.). The state also has jurisdiction over a force called the bank and industrial police (policía bancaria e industrial) (ibid.). Members of this force wear blue and red uniforms and drive navy blue vehicles (ibid.). Normally they are armed only with nightsticks (toletes), with the exception of those who guard banks (ibid.). These police are paid both by the state and by the businesses they guard (ibid.) Nayarit (population: 903,886; capital: Tepic) Nayarit has a judicial police force (Estado de Nayarit n.d.; Nayarit Judicial Police 22 June 1999). The hierarchy within the force is as follows, in ascending order: B Agent, A Agent, Group Leader and Commander (Nayarit Judicial Police 22 June 1999; Estado de Nayarit n.d); in addition, there is a newly-created post of coordinator (ibid.). In 1997 there were 658 state judicial police agents (Estado de Nayarit n.d.). Apart from the judicial police, there is no state police force in Nayarit, because preventive police are under municipal jurisdiction in that state (Nayarit Judicial Police 30 June 1999).

25 Aguascalientes (population: 888,444; capital: Aguascalientes) The state of Aguascalientes is virtually a city-state, measuring 5,500 square kilometers (Gómez Barrera 22 June 1999). Eighty per cent of the state s population lives in the state capital, the city of Aguascalientes (ibid.). The state has a judicial police force (Procuraduría General de Justicia, Aguascalientes 10 Mar. 1997; Estado de Aguascalientes. n.d.). The General Directorate of Public Security and Traffic (Dirección General de Seguridad Pública y Vialidad) is a preventive police force with state jurisdiction that patrols state roads and the premises of state property, and also is available to help municipal police (Gómez Barrera 22 June 1999). The 70 members of this force are armed and wear black and beige uniforms in the day and white and beige uniforms at night (ibid.). Members of the municipal preventive and traffic police in Aguascalientes are also armed (ibid.). Municipal preventive police, which number 1,800, wear blue uniforms with a black stripe down the side of the pants, and municipal traffic police wear beige uniforms (ibid.). Traffic police in Aguascalientes, as in many other parts of Mexico, are known colloquially as tamarindos (tamarinds), because of the colour of their uniforms Colima (population: 515,313; capital: Colima) The police force in Colima that is attached to the state attorney general s office, and is analogous to the judicial/ministerial police in other states, is called the attorney general s police (policía de procuración de justicia) (Procuraduría General de Justicia, Colima 18 Apr. 1999; Estado de Colima 18 Apr. 1999a). Other state police forces are under the authority of the Directorate of Public Security (Dirección de Seguridad Pública), subordinate to the General Secretariat of Government (Secretaría General de Gobierno) (ibid. 18 Apr. 1999b). Under Colima s Law of the Preventive Police of 1996, the state has a preventive police force and complementary police forces, which are called the commercial, industrial, bank and auxiliary police forces (Art. 6) (ibid. 12 Sept. 1996). The Colima Public Security Police force includes the following specialized groups: the bank police (policía bancaria), who patrol areas where banks are located; the radio patrol (radiopatrulleros); the rescue and civil protection squad (escuadrón de rescate y protección civil); the riot squad (escuadrón de granaderos y antimotines); the rural community assistance

26 19 squad (escuadrón de auxilio a la comunidad rural), which conducts crime prevention in rural areas; the youth unit (unidad juvenil), which has two parts, male and female, and implements educational programs designed to reduce youth crime, drug use and truancy (ibid. 18 Apr. 1999d); the K-9 canine group; the motorized patrol group (grupo de motopatrullas); the reaction force group (grupo fuerza de reacción); the special assault group (grupo especial de asalto); and the tow-truck group (grupo de grúas) (ibid. 18 Apr. 1999c). 5. POLICE MILITARIZATION In the mid- to late-1990s a substantial militarization of various police forces took place in Mexico as an apparent response to the police forces unpopularity or inability to stem major crime activity (Schulz 24 June 1997). This militarization took the form of the appointment of military officers and regular soldiers, typically on leave from the armed forces, to positions in the various police forces (Los Angeles Times 4 Jan. 1998). On 11 December 1995, the General Law to Establish the Bases of Coordination of the National System of Public Security (Ley General que Establece las Bases de Coordinación del Sistema Nacional de Seguridad Pública) came into force, allowing the police and the military to work together under the supervision of a Special Executive (PRODH n.d.). Subsequently military officers took command of the majority of Mexico s police forces, and the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación) ruled that the military was permitted to participate in public security operations and arrest civilians, subject to the approval of the president (ibid.). In March 1996 the Mexican Supreme Court ruled that the armed forces could become involved in public security as long as it was at the request of the civilian authorities (Turbiville Apr. 1997). By August 1998 over half of the police forces in Mexico were headed by military officers (Los Angeles Times 9 Aug. 1998). Beginning in 1995, military officers took over command of the Federal Judicial Police (PJF) in Chihuahua (Schulz 24 June 1997; Crime and Justice International Feb. 1997, 5), all of Nuevo León s 50 PJF agents were replaced by 100 soldiers (Schulz 24 June 1997; Reforma 22 Apr. 1997), and generals were assigned to state police forces in 19 states (Schulz 24 June 1997) and DF (ibid.; Turbiville Apr. 1997). In DF, most of the high-level officials of the Secretariat of Public Security (Secretaría de Seguridad Pública: SSP) were replaced by military officers in the spring of 1996 (ibid.). Among the police organizations under the purview of SSP