MOSCOW, August 22 (RIA Novosti) - This Friday, Mexico is to present its new gendarmerie, intended to strengthen security in the most disadvantaged regions of the country, and at strategic ports, airports, oil centers and borders.
The unit is to be responsible for national security, Monte Alejandro Rubido, the head of Mexico's National Security Council, previously stated.
Starting out as a part of the Mexican Federal Police, with 5,000 members, the National Gendarmerie is expected to expand in the future.
The idea of creating a gendarmerie was first proposed by Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto during his election campaign. In an op-ed for The New York Times, then-presidential candidate Pena Nieto promised creating a “40,000-person National Gendarmerie, a police force similar to those in countries like Colombia, Italy and France, to focus on the most violent rural areas.”
Mexican police forces consist of federal, state and municipal branches. The Federal Police is responsible for restoring peace in the country’s troubled northern regions, which serve as a path for drug trafficking to the United States.
In 2008, the police underwent structural reforms, the main purpose of which was to better battle drug cartels and organized crime. According to the El Economista newspaper, the Federal Police will maintain responsibility for fighting drug trafficking.
