Security a la AMLO: An Evaluation of the Militarisation of Mexican Law Enforcement

Abstract

This thesis aims to provide an assessment of the militarisation of the Mexican Guardia Nacional (GN) under Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018-2024), as well as consider its societal implications in terms of citizen security, human rights, police reform, and the legal order. This research finds its value in its preliminary and exploratory nature, resting on a relatively understudied subject. The study provides one of the first attempts at measuring the status of the GN, which has evolved into the principal national guarantor of public security in Mexico. The evaluation of the GN was carried out through the establishment a scale of measurement based on commonalities with the Fuerzas Armadas (FA), which was applied to four separate indicators: material, cultural, organisational, and operational. All four indicators were found to share a high number of commonalities with the FA. As such, this thesis deems that the GN is undergoing a process of militarisation, and can be currently considered as similar to a 'constabularised military'. The implications of this assessment can be seen in terms of citizen security, human rights, police reform, and the legal order. It was found that while the GN had no impact on levels of violence or be seen to be moving away from a defined legal order, the body was...