Mexico's quest for alternatives: adopting a human security and integrity-building approach to the militarization of the Mexican National Guard

Abstract

A Human Security crisis is underway in Mexico. The amount of human rights abuses and violations made by armed forces and police in the territory during the last 13 years has made it very difficult to think that the current government will properly implement and succeed with the creation of the so-called “National Guard.” A contribution to the creation of this new National Guard throughout a human security and integrity building perspective is the innovative approach of this text. The aim of this thesis is to scrutinize the lack of mechanisms to create such a military force, particularly a study of the background and miscalculations regarding the two last presidential terms. The case study of the application of the integrity building toolkit to provide a genuinely new intention to this armed force. In this text, I acknowledge public opinion, civil society, security experts and politicians’ insights to examine from 180 degrees if the creation of this National Guard in Mexico is the way to go. Additionally, this document will reconsider the application of the Integrity Building Program and review how it could be applied to Mexico´s new National Guard in order to prevent more wrongdoings by military forces and, at the same time, produce results. Key words: Mexico, Human Rights, Human Security, Citizen Security, Civil-Military Relations, National Security, Democratic Transition, National Guard, Integrity Building