The budget granted to the National Guard for 2022 had a general increase, in real terms, of 69.8% compared to the previous year, going from 36,991 million pesos in 2021 to 62,825 million. In this context, a rise of more than 1,000 million pesos stands out for the item to combat crimes. However, experts considered that increasing resources is not the solution to lower violence rates in the country.
Within the Expenditure Budget of the Federation (PEF) it was stipulated that of the total approved for this year, 47.4% is for the operation of the institution, the prevention, investigation and prosecution of crimes, that is, 29,803 million 368,492 will be made available pesos.
This figure is 2.8% higher in real terms than what was allocated for this item in the 2021 budget when a total of 28,995 million 838,378 pesos was approved.
Since its creation in 2019, according to figures from the Center for Public Finance Studies of the Chamber of Deputies, the GN has seen the budget for combating crime grow significantly, however, it has had little influence on improving the climate of insecurity in the country since, between 2019 and 2020, more than 68,000 victims of intentional homicide were registered.
In 2019, the GN exercised an amount of 915.2 million pesos for the prevention, investigation and prosecution of crimes; In 2020, although 2,319 million pesos were approved, it ended up exercising 18,633 million.
Erubiel Tirado, security expert at the Ibero-American University considered it logical that more and more resources are assigned to the GN because it is a recently created institution and President Andrés Manuel López Obrador seeks its consolidation, however, he made a call so that spending is as transparent as possible.
“What we would have expected is that it is not only about giving money, which is important in any public function, but how they are going to do it (reduce violence). By attenuating the way things have been handled in the security and defense sector, understanding the military, there is great opacity in this matter. The precedents and the performance of the GN, as well as that of the military in the country, do not pay enough to wait for it to work ”, he said.
For her part, Daira Arana Aguilar, General Director of Global Thought MX, considered that the attention that should be given to the security problem in the country should be multifactorial in addition to pointing out that the GN lacks an institutional identity as it is made up of elements of various institutions.
“It is difficult to decipher if this amount is enough, but the truth is that it is a sign that the bet is on the GN to solve everything (…) It seems to me that we are at a good time to rethink the strategy and stop putting all the eggs to the GN basket and begin to diversify ”, indicated the expert in militarization.
Rights violations
Since its inception, the GN has quickly positioned itself as one of the institutions at the federal level with the most complaints for human rights violations.
According to data from the National Human Rights Violation Alert System, from January to September, the GN is in sixth place as the institution with the highest number of complaints with 388, a figure higher than the 359 it registered in all of 2020.
Among the main reasons for complaints are arbitrary detentions, improper use of force or lack of legality, honesty, loyalty, impartiality and efficiency in the performance of functions, jobs, positions or commissions, among others.
The entities that concentrate the largest number of complaints are CDMX (32); Chihuahua (31); Chiapas (27); Edomex (25) and Veracruz (24).
In this regard, both specialists considered that it is very worrying that since its creation the GN appears in this list of the CNDH and they consider militarization as one of the factors that favors the increase.
“When the interactions of security institutions and citizens are based on a dynamic of viewing everything as a threat, it is more likely that greater levels of force will be used that may violate fundamental rights,” said Arana Aguilar.
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx