MEXICO'S SECURITY REFORM MOVING AHEAD IN FITS AND

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 MEXICO 003183

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR INL

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/12/2027
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM SNAR KCRM MX
SUBJECT: MEXICO'S SECURITY REFORM MOVING AHEAD IN FITS AND
STARTS

REF: A. MEXICO 002669

B. MEXICO 003099

Classified By: Political Minister Counselor Charles V. Barclay.
Reason: 1.4 (b),(d).


1. (C) Summary. Mexican President Calderon has submitted to
congress a series of proposals to improve government
performance on security matters, the most significant of
which probably are police reorganization, reform of the
Attorney General's Office, and the renovation of a National
System for Public Security. These measures are intended to
move forward the implementation of constitutional reforms
passed in June and to comply with the August 75 point
security pact. Opposition parties have responded with their
own proposals. With only about a month and a half remaining
before the close of this legislative session on December 15,
many observers are pessimistic that the bills will be passed
in this session. A failure to meet the December 15 deadline
will hurt Calderon, regardless of who is to blame, and will
make sustaining momentum in the war on crime more difficult.
These reforms are essential to continued progress in judicial
and police restructuring. End Summary.

Keeping Promises
--------------


2. (SBU) Calderon submitted to congress in late September and
October a series of proposals geared toward improving
government performance on security matters. The majority of
the proposals are part of the set of secondary legislation
congress needs to pass in order to establish the terms--such
as budget and management--necessary to set into motion the
police and legal constitutional reforms passed in June. The
Mexican government is also looking to comply with the
timeframes established by the 75-point security accord signed
in August, which includes a series of deadlines intended to
commit congress and the executive to accomplishing a variety
of tasks (ref a). Calderon has presented laws to create a
national public security system, to regulate the federal
police, to normalize the relationship between the Public
Ministry and the police, create laws permitting for asset
forfeiture, crack down on drug dealing, make changes to the
penal code and procedures, and reform the law against
organized crime. Congress is supposed to vote on these
measures by the end of this legislative session on December
15, as well as develop and vote on a kidnapping law by the
same date.

Calderon's Proposals
--------------


3. (SBU) The Calderon administration and the PAN party have
presented legislative proposals covering the aforementioned
topics, ranging from police reorganization to new
anti-kidnapping laws. Some of the key measures include:

--POLICE REORGANIZATION. Calderon submitted on October 21
the Law of the Federal Police that intends to replace the
Federal Preventive Police (PFP) with a new organization that
would fall under the Public Security Secretariat and be
called the Federal Police. This transition has already been
in process for some time, but Calderon's bill seeks to
establish formal regulations for the new entity and better
define its relationship with other government organizations,
including the Public Ministry. The proposal would also
accede to the new police force the authority to investigate
criminal activities akin to the U.S. criminal justice system,
making the PGR's Federal Investigative Agency (AFI) obsolete.
Most of AFI operations are supposed to move to the new
organization. Furthermore, the initiative establishes
guidelines for the professionalization and development of
career paths for police officers. Calderon admitted that the
PFP has not performed up to standards due to gaps in previous
police reform measures, thus necessitating these new efforts.

--PGR REFORM. Along with the police reform bill, Calderon
also sent to congress a proposal to boost the Federal Public
Ministry's ability to investigate various crimes, receive
anonymous tips on crime, seize assets of organized criminals,
and mandate measures be taken to protect crime victims. The
law seeks to encourage better cooperation and coordination
among its various components, as well as to establish higher
standards for PGR employees by strengthening selection,

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hiring, and training processes.

-------------- NATIONAL SYSTEM FOR PUBLIC SECURITY. Calderon's proposal
for a new national public security system, sent to congress
on September 30, calls for the creation of a national
database on criminal activity, the strengthening and
standardizing of police training, and the development of a
system of controls to ensure police officers meet minimum
quality and anti-corruption requirements. The bill also
looks to ensure greater coordination between federal, state,
and local police forces, and creates a new department to
oversee anti-corruption efforts in the police.

--ASSET FORFEITURE. As a follow-up to the judicial reform
bill signed by the president in June, the executive has
proposed legislation outlining regulations to enhance the
ability of the government to deprive criminal organizations
of their ill-gotten gains. The "extincion de dominio" law,
which is modeled after Colombia's law of the same name, will
allow for the judicial forfeiture of illicit assets without
the need for a criminal conviction of a person (much like the
U.S. civil forfeiture process).

--NARCOMENUDEO. President Calderon submitted to the Senate
on October 2 proposed reforms to the General Law of Health,
the Federal Penal Code, and the Federal Code for Penal
Proceedings related to narcomenudeo, or drug consumption and
small-time drug dealing. The legislative package includes a
variety of provisions, including measures intended to
increase coordination between local and federal law
enforcement elements investigating specific drug offenses and
giving states the ability to try drug dealers in local
courts. The law establishes increased penalties for those
engaged in small-scale sale and distribution of narcotics, as
well as a measure to send individuals possessing small
quantities of drugs to treatment centers rather than prisons
(ref b).

Opposition Proposals
--------------


4. (C) Opposition political parties have written their own
counterproposals to Calderon's, some of which will require
more negotiation than others. President of the Chamber of
Deputies, Cesar Duarte, told poloffs on October 23 that while
congress has not been focused on security issues due to the
pressures of passing energy reform measures, PRI has
identified a number of points of disagreement with the
executive. He noted that PRI opposes Calderon's proposal for
a "national police," but appeared to be unclear as to what
the GOM's bill actually contains. He said the party does not
take issue with folding together federal level police forces,
namely AFI and PFP, and appeared to interpret the creation of
a federal police as unifying all police forces in the country
from the municipal to national level.


5. (C) PRI also differs significantly on the GOM's proposal
for a new national system for public security. While both
parties share a similar goal--increasing the coordination
between and the efficiency of all police forces--PRI's bill
requires a constitutional change that would mandate such
cooperation. Technical Secretary to the Constitutional
Issues Committee Sharon Cuenca told poloff on October 21 that
PRI's proposal is stronger than PAN's in that it establishes
the mechanism to make communication and cooperation a
requirement. PAN, on the other hand, has argued that a
constitutional change is not required. On the narcomenudeo
legislation, PRI has been relatively quiet, but Cuenca said
that it appears PRI is far more comfortable with Calderon's
proposal than it is with PRD's argument that the quantities
of drugs be increased or that some drugs be legalized. Other
items of legislation will engender less debate amongst the
parties, according to Cuenca, such as some penal code and
anti-kidnapping laws that require compromise on simpler
issues such as prison sentences.

Status in Congress
--------------


6. (C) With only about a month and a half remaining before
the close of this legislative session on December 15, many
observers are pessimistic that the bills will quickly be
passed. Legislative analyst Marco Perafan told poloff on
October 24 that he expects the more minor legislation, such

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as penal reform, anti-kidnapping measures, and perhaps
narcomenudeo, to pass this session. He is less sanguine
about the prospects of the three items he identified as most
significant--Calderon's recently submitted police and PGR
reform and the PRI's National Public Security system
proposal. Perfan noted that even after the congress finishes
with energy reform, it will be consumed by budget
negotiations during the following two weeks, leaving little
time for the complex negotiations that the aforementioned
proposals are likely to entail. Cuenca told poloff that
discussion of the asset forfeiture regulations is quite
advanced and that the bill probably will pass once energy
reform has been concluded.

Comment
--------------


7. (C) Congress may be hard-pressed to pass the required and
necessary bills by the December 15 deadline with energy
reform and budget debates complicating the agenda. A failure
to meet the December 15 deadline will hurt Calderon,
regardless of who is to blame, and will make sustaining
momentum in the war on crime more difficult, particularly as
measures that carry over into the next legislative session
may face an even more hardened congress as parties gear up
for the 2009 legislative and gubernatorial elections. These
reforms are essential to continued progress in judicial and
police restructuring.
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