UN Rights Official Urges Mexico to Withdraw Army from Law Enforcement Duties Mark Stevenson - The Associated Press
go to original October 8, 2015

The United Nations' top human rights official is calling on the Mexican government to set a timetable for withdrawing military personnel from law enforcement duties and replacing them with well-trained police.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad al-Hussein said Wednesday that the government should return soldiers to their barracks because military forces aren't designed to do police work.

It "has to be driven by a sense of real urgency, real urgency. It's not something that can wait endless months," he said.

Zeid said Mexico's defense secretary, Gen. Salvador Cienfuegos, had told him the army doesn't desire a policing role.

...Mexican soldiers and marines began leading the fight against cartels after many police units proved too corrupt or inefficient to take them on.

Read the rest at StarTribune

Related: Mexico Drug War: Militarization and Violence Are “Means of Government Control” - Bishop Raúl Vera (Mexico Voices)

Related: Mexican Soldiers Should be Questioned by Expert Panel: U.N. Official (Reuters)

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