The Mexican government has executed a security reform that transfers the National Guard (NG), a key public security organization, to the Ministry of National Defense (SEDENA), further increasing the military's reliance in its security strategy. According to an article by Victoria Dittmar, with the National Guard Law amendment taking effect on July 1st, the organization was officially transferred from the civilian agency, the Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection (SSPC), to the Ministry of National Defense, which is under military command.
This measure results in Mexico losing its nationwide civilian police force and gaining a fourth permanent military institution, following the Army, Air Force, and Navy. Analysts suggest this is the culmination of a long-term trend of expanding the military's role in the fight against crime.
Although the National Guard was conceived as a civilian organization upon its creation in 2019, it has already been operating under a military logic, integrating former Federal Police and Army/Navy battalions, and led by commanders with military backgrounds. This integration into the Ministry of National Defense formalizes its de facto military nature.
Experts anticipate that, despite the administrative change, there will be little operational shift for the National Guard, which has long maintained a military structure. However, as the National Guard continues to perform public security duties, the military is now obligated to adhere to standardized police reporting and initial response protocols. With the overlapping roles between the National Guard and other military organizations in terms of mission, the boundary between defense and public security duties is becoming blurred.
The government's preference for a military-centric strategy is underpinned by the public's high trust in the military for fighting crime. The military is also incentivized to actively engage in public security missions through institutional benefits like budget increases and personnel expansion. Specifically, the transfer of the National Guard to the Ministry of National Defense has resulted in the Ministry securing both manpower and budget.
The legislative changes introduced under President Claudia Sheinbaum's administration, by strengthening intelligence gathering and military deployment, suggest a return to the combat-centric approach of the former President Felipe Calderón era. However, this reform did not establish separate safeguards to prevent serious human rights violations such as excessive use of force, torture, and extrajudicial killings.
Since only the legal status and disciplinary system have changed, with no alteration to the unit's doctrine or training, the existing patterns of force usage are likely to continue. Furthermore, as transparency and accountability are extremely limited during this period, tracking the use of force by security agencies is expected to become even more difficult. The dominant analysis is that, in the long run, reliance on military force will be unlikely to bring sustainable results without being supported by broader public policy.
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