Six years after former Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador dismantled the Federal Police and left all security duties in the hands of the military, his successor, Claudia Sheinbaum, has shifted his strategy and begun rebuilding an elite civilian force for investigations and special operations that will deliver results in the fight against the cartels.
First, he quietly abandoned López Obrador’s “Hugs, Not Bullets” policy, which focused on addressing the causes of crime without directly confronting the criminals. Now, just as pressure from the United States is intensifying, his Secretary of Security, Omar García Harfuch, seeks to regain leadership from the military with a civilian police force under his direct command.
No official details of the new National Operations Unit (UNO) have yet been released, but its existence is already an open secret among those who served in the defunct Federal Police, a force where García Harfuch began his career and where he has sought allies.
Last week, a video was leaked that discussed the graduation of 54 members, and three Mexican officials confirmed the team’s existence to The Associated Press. All requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak.
David Saucedo, an expert on organized crime, learned of its existence from people who were part of it and believes that García Harfuch’s goal is to have an “armed wing” with which to respond to Washington’s demands.
Intelligence, Investigation, and Operations
On Monday, while in the United States in negotiations with the Donald Trump administration, the secretary of state posted on his social media a recruitment campaign for investigative and intelligence agents.
One of the federal officials familiar with many of the details explained that the unit began forming as soon as Sheinbaum took office, six months ago. The group aims to have 800 members by the end of the year, with the best training in all types of operations.
Its members are primarily former federal police officers and members of the special operations team García Harfuch created in Mexico City when he led the capital’s police force. Most of them were trained by elite forces from the United States, Colombia, Spain, or France.
Reporting to the Undersecretariat of Intelligence and Investigation, it will have an alternate budget, three regional coordination units, and one in charge of high-impact operations—”the elite of the elite,” in the official’s words.
Although the unit has not been formally inaugurated, the official asserted that it has already had successes: ensuring that the unprecedented and delicate transfer to the United States in February of 29 high-profile drug traffickers who had to be released from Mexican prisons following an agreement between the two countries went smoothly.
García Harfuch is also trying to rebuild trust with Washington after López Obrador limited the activity of US agents in Mexico and relations became strained.
A Controversial Past
Mexico has various security forces—the Armed Forces, state police, and municipal police—but it has been trying for almost 20 years to consolidate a national civilian police force to reduce the violence of organized crime.
These efforts were marred by scandals such as that of Genaro García Luna, Secretary of Security from 2006 to 2012, a promoter of the Federal Police who was eventually sentenced in the United States for using the state’s intelligence infrastructure to collaborate with the Sinaloa Cartel. García Harfuch began working as a police officer during this time but has always denied any connection with him.
When López Obrador came to power in 2018, he dissolved the Federal Police because he considered it too corrupt. He turned García Luna into an example of past evils, cut almost all funding for training and equipping local police forces—leaving them more vulnerable to the cartels—and placed power in the hands of the military, including control of the National Guard, which was created as a civilian force. What followed were six years of increasing militarization during which violence continued unabated.
Sheinbaum opted for a change. More forceful operations began, for example, against local authorities linked to crime, and the president promoted legal amendments so that her trusted man, García Harfuch, rather than the military, would have ultimate command of security strategy.
But overcoming the Armed Forces is not easy. The secretary “was a toothless tiger,” denied vehicles, data, and investigative files by other forces, and a fight for control of security arose, explained David Saucedo. “What he’s doing by forming this unit is buying fangs.”
“In 2018, we destroyed what we had built for almost 20 years, and now we realize we were wrong,” said Alberto Capella, a controversial former police chief who worked in various parts of the country, including Tijuana.
The Challenge: Preventing Corruption
Special operations groups, whether from the Navy, Army, Federal Police, or state police, have been embroiled in numerous scandals and abuses over the years due to excessive use of force, extrajudicial killings, and the infiltration of organized crime into their ranks.
“There were many cases that were wrong,” the federal official acknowledges, but, in his opinion, there were also honest police officers.
Now, the federal Ministry of Security aims to conduct far more thorough checks and investigations of candidates, whom it wants to pay better and require university degrees from.
García Harfuch’s influence also extends to several states governed by the ruling party. In some, he has promoted people he trusts to key positions, and UNO is expected to train local elite units in Michoacán, Tamaulipas, the State of Mexico, Veracruz, and Chiapas.
In this southern state, where Mexico’s two main cartels are fighting for control of the border, one such unit was formally presented in December: the 500-member Pakal unit. Two of its members told the AP they came from the Federal Police and had to undergo eight months of grueling additional training.
Those close to the UNO believe that the coordination under García Harfuch’s command and loyalty will make this team different from previous ones.
Saucedo is doubtful. “There is no guarantee that this elite group won’t commit the excesses that other special operations groups have committed” because, for now, it lacks effective controls and oversight. The results remain to be seen.
Source: latimes
