A tug of war over the state centralized police departments may have taken a new turn Monday as State of Mexico Gov. Revile Ávila transferred command of the National Governors’ Conference (Conago) to Morelos state Gov. Graco Ramírez.
The centralization of state police departments was proposed two years ago by President Enrique Peña Nieto to Congress but so far, the bill has gotten nowhere as there is stiff opposition from several political parties to the elimination of municipal police departments.
As far as the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), the nation’s third political force, Chamber of Deputies PRD leader Jesús Zambrano stated over the weekend that “the president’s state centralized police departments bill is dead, period.” The bill is known as the “mando único” or Unified Command for state police departments.
Yet during all this time Interior Secretary Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong has pushed hard to promote the president’s bill and it has had a good, though not resounding, echo within the Conago.
During his seven months as president of the Conago, Eruviel Ávila staunchly supported the bill and the push for it is expected to continue under Graco Ramírez. Ramírez, in fact, has established the “mando único” by decree in Morelos, and that includes Cuernavaca.
Yet even in Morelos there was disagreement as the “mando único” eliminates the municipal power and is “clearly unconstitutional.”
Ramírez went as far as accusing one dissident mayor of having “alliances with organized crime” for not accepting the imposition of the decree for one state controlled police department.
The ball is in Graco’s court.
