The army’s growing wealth and influence strengthen the executive branch of Mexico’s government but could also weaken its civilian leaders, including the president
Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitaskMr López Obrador, president since 2018, once argued that soldiers should return to their barracks. Now he has given them more power than has any predecessor. He wagers that they will act more quickly than bureaucrats and be less corrupt. The army is popular; its ranks are drawn from theBut the armed forces carry out their new tasks badly.
As worrying is the army’s new role in the economy, which brings it huge transfers of cash. Mr López Obrador has handed the armed forces some 70 civilian functions, according to Mexico United Against Crime, an. They include running ports, building a tourist railway, helping to run social programmes and clearing sargassum—invasive algae—from beaches.
Some generals are encouraging this. Among documents obtained by Guacamaya, a group of hackers, was a proposal drawn up by the army’s legal-affairs unit for the president offering two legislative paths by which it could take control of the National Guard . The hack also revealed that the armed forces plan to run a commercial airline, mainly to unserved destinations. It would use the presidential jet that Mr López Obrador tried, and failed, to sell.
Spending on the army’s crime-fighting role diverts money from other security spending, for example on civilian police forces and on forensic experts, and comes at the expense of other vital services. The government has cut the education budget as a share ofThe army’s growing wealth and influence strengthen the executive branch of government but could also weaken its civilian leaders, including the president. That poses a risk to Mexico’s young democracy.
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