The president of Coparmex asked for a plan to get the Army off the streets in a timely manner in 2028, and not stay forever.
LEÓN, Guanajuato.- José Medina Mora Icaza, president of the Employers’ Confederation of the Mexican Republic (Coparmex), affirmed that the mission of the Army is the defense of Mexico and not the business role as is already seen with the operation of airports, trains and now with the creation of a commercial airline.
“Militarization is that the Army is in security and militarism is that they are given the functions of building airports, trains, bank branches and now that they want to build an airline,” he declared in the framework of the Annual Meeting of Industrialists, whose motto is “A future in sustainability and inclusion, innovation in the Mexican industry”.
“That is not the mission of the Army since the Constitution establishes it clearly and it is important that the Army concentrates on the mission it has and that is the defense of the country and not that of doing business,” said the union leader. patronal.
For that, he added, free enterprise exists and civilians should be in charge of making investments and generating investments respecting the law in Mexico.
“Mexico is a tourist paradise and it seems to us that the way to promote tourism is to make it known abroad and we had an advantage for not closing the borders in the Covid-19 pandemic, this caused us to go from being the tourist destination 7 number 2 in tourism attraction”, he stated.
Medina Mora Icaza recalled that the Army will be in the streets until 2028 as support and something exceptional, but that is not its mission granted by the Constitution and he trusted that it will be temporary.
“We thank the Army for its performance, for what is important is the transition plan so that it returns to the barracks in 2028 without deteriorating security,” said the president of Coparmex.
He added that if Mexico wants to recover security, investment in state and municipal police is needed, because “unfortunately” the Security Strengthening Program (Fortaseg) was canceled and there are no more resources to strengthen municipal police.
“Hopefully, in the discussion of the 2023 Budget in the Chamber of Deputies, resources will be allocated to strengthening the state and municipal police,” said Medina Mora Icaza.
Today, he mentioned, the most important thing is the plan to get the Army off the streets without deteriorating security, but “it requires investment in municipal and state police so that the National Guard acts subsidiarily in coordination with municipal police.” and state”.
If a plan is not drawn up, he warned, the year 2028 will come and the date for the return to the Armed Forces barracks will have to be postponed.
