Mexico’s lower congressional chamber held a midnight vote that gave ultimate control of their civilian federal police force to the nation’s military. The move sparked much controversy as Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) and his party had campaigned to de-militarizing the country as a way to diminish the rampant cartel violence.

Shortly after midnight on Saturday, Mexico’s chamber of deputies voted in favor of a series of reforms to the nations law that had been proposed by Lopez Obrador. The changes called for turning control of the civilian federal police force called the National Guard over to the country’s National Defense Secretariat (SEDENA), the newspaper El País reported. The controversial vote went along party lines with the members of the ruling party Morena voting in favor of the move.

In August, López Obrador said that he would publish a decree to transfer the command of the institution to SEDENA (Mexican Army). He added that he would also ask for a series of reforms from Congress so that the military could control the budget and administration of the National Guard, El Universal reported.

Lopez Obrador created the National Guard in 2019 as his answer to solving the cartel violence and corruption plaguing the country. Lopez Obrador disbanded the nation’s federal police and moved those agents to the National Guard to bolster the troop numbers. He then moved several soldiers and naval infantrymen over from SEDENA and the Naval Secretariat (SEMAR).

Currently, the Mexican National Guard has 115,000 members nationwide. However, the security body has drawn much criticism for its lack of performance as cartel violence continues to spread throughout the country. This is despite claims by AMLO that crime rates are dropping.

At the time that the National Guard was created, AMLO and the Morena Party agreed with other parties that the command of the National Guard would be civilian and that it would only resort to the Armed Forces in an “extraordinary case.”

The move to militarize the National Guard was fiercely contested by opposition parties which led to fierce debates. They did not have the numbers to win the vote. Jorge Triana, a politician from the National Action Party (PAN), lashed at Lopez Obrador and the move by Morena calling him, “The most militaristic president in the history of the country,” Milenio news reported.

In response, Gerardo Fernández Noroña, a politician from the Workers Party (PT), defended Lopez Obrador claiming that his movement, also known as the Fourth Transformation, would never use the military to repress the people.

“It was you who militarized the country,” Fernandez Noroña said. “It was you who bathed the country in blood. It was you who put the nation in this nightmare. And it is you who, in alliance with drug traffickers, that continue to set the country on fire.”

As Breitbart Texas previously reported, Fernandez Noroña has been a controversial figure for some time after he posted a shirtless photo of himself and reportedly requested nude images from social media influencers.

Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com. 

Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.     

“C.P. Mireles” from Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project contributed to this report.