On Friday Pres. Peña Nieto swore in Mexico’s new 5,000-strong gendarmerie, which he hopes will provide the kind of security needed to allow Mexico to prosper. The move is not without its critics:
Yet another criticism of the new police force was recently made by transparency advocacy group Fundar, which released a report on the initiative in July. While its authors applaud the Peña Nieto administration’s decision to keep the new force under civil authority, the report concludes that the gendarmerie operates under a strategic vision that ‘prioritizes eliminating the enemy over protecting the civilian population.’