Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Tuesday sent a sweeping security initiative to Congress aimed at weeding out police corruption and streamlining the exchange of information on criminals.
With drug gangs dumping bodies near elementary schools and staging grenade attacks on Independence Day revelers, Calderon urged lawmakers to swiftly approve his proposal so that “police can serve the people and not criminals.”
Calderon said the package of reforms would reduce corruption among security forces and improve coordination among federal and local governments.
The initiative was drawn up a few weeks ago with the help of Mexico’s 32 governors and security leaders.
It includes the creation of a national database on criminal activity. It also works to strengthen and standardize police training and to create a system of controls to ensure officers continue to meet minimal quality and anti-corruption requirements.
Calderon also promised to crack down on criminals who use police uniforms or badges.
In Mexico, criminals often dress in police uniforms, setting up fake checkpoints to kidnap people and barging into homes. Some officers have been prosecuted for kidnappings and taking part in the drug trade.
Calderon said that the proposal would allow Mexico’s security forces to unite against the country’s powerful criminal organizations.
He said the initiative was a step toward “returning to our Mexico the security and peace it hopes for.”
The bills also include police procedures to protect human rights and stronger penalties for those officers who sell drugs to people on the street, especially to children.
In August, hundreds of thousands of people dressed in white marched silently through Mexico City’s streets to demand more be done against a rising number of kidnappings and drug-related killings.
Despite Calderon’s optimist that his initiative would unite the country against criminals, some say it is not enough to deal with an unprecedented wave of violence in the country.
On Monday, the bodies of 12 people, some with their tongues cut out, were found in a vacant lot next to an elementary school in the border city of Tijuana, the latest in a rash of grisly drug killings across the nation.
In an attack that shocked the nation, three men linked to the infamous Zetas, the Gulf cartel’s hitman, threw grenades at Independence Day revelers on Sept. 15 in Calderon’s home state of Michoacan killing eight and injuring more than 100 people.
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