Arrest of ex-army chief puts Mexican president's plans under siege

ja7219540 (25)in #army • 5 years ago

The spectacular fall from grace of Mexico's previous armed forces supremo has raised awkward questions about the president's reliance on the military to fight drug gangs and manage an increasing portfolio of vital civilian infrastructure.

Thursday's arrest of former Defense Minister Salvador Cienfuegos in the United States at the Los Angeles airport on drug trafficking charges sent shockwaves through the political establishment and embarrassed a once highly trusted institution.

It threatens to sour government relations with the military, which since President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador assumed power in December 2018 has been tasked not just with reducing violence, but also managing ports and even building an airport.

"He has placed his entire political capital on making his political project work through the armed forces," said Falko Ernst, a senior analyst with the International Crisis Group. "If he steers away from that, there's no one else to turn to right now. He doesn't have many other options left."

Lopez Obrador responded to the Cienfuegos arrest by vowing to root out military corruption - a promise which sits uneasily with the faith he previously put in Mexico's generals.

Now the same military leaders the president is counting on to pacify Mexico after years of gang violence may end up sidelined in top civilian security appointments, officials say.

Before Cienfuegos' detention, speculation was growing that Lopez Obrador would appoint a general to replace Security Minister Alfonso Durazo, who has flagged his intention to run for the governorship of the northern state of Sonora in 2021.

"This is a game changer," said a senior Mexican police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Lopez Obrador would have to "pay a high political price" to put a military figure in charge of the civilian body, the official added.

Then there is the question of bad blood.

Charging Cienfuegos, who ran the army from 2012-18, with the very crime he was meant to be rooting out risks shaking a key pillar of the Mexican state to its core - and incurring its wrath, another government official said.

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5 years ago in #army by ja7219540 (25)

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