Mexico Cleaning up Police Corruption? – Moving at the Speed of Creativity

I’ve watched the news with considerable interest in the past few years as Mexico’s incredibly high levels of drug related violence continue to make headlines. When I lived in Mexico City in 1992-93 and wrote both “Mexican Security” and “U.S. Drug Control in the Americas: Time for a Change” (2 of my 4 Fulbright-funded papers about Latin American security issues) I become aware of the challenges Mexico faced with respect to the power of drug cartels and police corruption. See my posts “Drug violence in Mexico is bad: VERY bad” and “Juarez violence trivialized by some media headlines” from May 2008 for more background on the drug cartel and violence issues.

Today’s CNN article, “More than 3,000 Mexican federal police fired, commissioner says” indicates almost ten percent of all federal police in Mexico have been fired because of corruption charges. This is an incredible headline and statistic, though one which is likely not surprising to those familiar with historical Mexican police practices. I do not have any insider knowledge about this at present, but found this headline so arresting I thought I’d share it.

As it does with news in most countries around the world, Global Voices Online has several articles of note about Mexico worth checking out. Miguel Castillo‘s posts from May, “Mexico: Citizen Journalism in the Middle of Drug-Trafficking Violence” and “Mexico: Fear and Intimidation in Electronic Media” reflect how the escalating levels of violence have directly affected many Mexicans.

Hopefully this latest action by the Calderón administration will be a positive step forward for the rule of law, security and human rights in Mexico.

photo credit: lazha