Mexicoâs Congress Considers Changing Security Law In Attempt to Control Drug Prohibition Violence
With the current session of Mexicoâs Congress scheduled to expire Friday, members of Mexicoâs House of Deputies have less than a week to deliberate over extremely controversial changes to the countryâs National Security Law that would give the President the power to deploy Mexicoâs Armed Forces against broadly defined internal threats to Mexican national security. PT and Convergencia parties say that the 83-page initiative to change the law constitutes a threat to individual liberties and could create a state of exception in Mexico that would effectively put the country under military control. They remain deeply skeptical of proposed changes to the law, which advocate, among other things, the monitoring and recording of private communication for intelligence-gathering purposes. Organizations such as Human Rights Watch have drawn attention to frequent abuses by the Mexican military and contend that there is a widespread systemic failure to prosecute human rights violations in Mexican military courts.
