MEXICO CITY (EFE).— The Mexican Armed Forces welcomed this Monday the future president, Claudia Sheinbaum, who will assume power on October 1, and said they were ready to remain under her command, during the last military parade of the president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, with which the 214th anniversary of the beginning of the country’s Independence was commemorated.
It was an event in which the Army, Navy and Air Force highlighted their leading role with López Obrador and defended the legacy of militarization that they will deliver to Claudia Sheinbaum, who accompanied the president at the event that was held in the capital’s Zócalo.
Together with the secretaries of the Navy, José Rafael Ojeda, and of the National Defense, Luis Cresencio Sandoval, López Obrador toured the Zócalo on foot, in the middle of the formation of the Armed Forces, to carry out the raising of the monumental flag of the called Plaza de Constitución.
Later, on an open vehicle, the president carried out the review of the 15,000 agents of the Army, Navy, Air Force and National Guard, to later witness the parade as Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces.
The Armed Forces in the 4T
During the López Obrador government (2018-2024), the Armed Forces, in addition to acting in public security tasks, have participated in the construction of the emblematic infrastructure works that the president has promoted, such as the new Felipe Ángeles International Airport, the Olmeca refinery, in Dos Bocas, in Tabasco, and the Maya Train, as well as different airports, among others.
According to reforms approved by Congress in 2022, the Armed Forces will support public security tasks until 2028, while the National Guard, which was born as a civil institution, will be in charge of the Mexican Army.
At the event, both Ojeda and Sandoval presented a brief report to López Obrador on the relevant actions during his government, thanked him and later addressed Claudia Shainbaum.
“President, we are accountable to the nation, we have left our hearts in each of these projects, we respond to the trust and privileged place that our people have given to the Secretariat of the Navy of Mexico,” said Ojeda, head of the Secretary of the Navy (Semar).
“It will be the last parade that we are under your command (…) many thanks to you, our Supreme Commander, for guiding us and allowing us the honor of accompanying you on your tireless journey making history together.”
Respect to Claudia Sheinbaum
He then addressed Claudia Sheinbaum: “president-elect (…) our people have expressed their will, we Mexicans are ready to have the first woman in our history as president,” which will happen on October 1 in the change of power.
“The Secretariat of the Mexican Navy celebrates the fact and grants the demonstration of respect and subordination to who will be our supreme commander,” said Ojeda, who will be replaced by Raymundo Pedro Morales.
In his turn, the head of the Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena), Luis Crescencio Sandoval, who will be replaced by Ricardo Trevilla Trejo, in the Sheinbaum government, thanked the trust that López Obrador has placed in the Armed Forces and the Guard. National.
“We have always been institutions close to the people but in this administration, thanks to your instructions to generate infrastructure, create jobs, contribute to security, manage strategic sectors of the country (…) we have gotten closer to the people,” said Sandoval, who He was grateful for having strengthened the National Guard.
He recalled that “a few days after starting a new administration, the Army and Air Force are prepared for the challenges that arise (…) I express to the Mexicans that their soldiers are ready to continue carrying out the instructions that guide our future.” Supreme Commander for the benefit of the people of Mexico.”
During López Obrador’s government, which ends on September 30, controversy grew in Mexico over the militarization policies of the president, who promised to return soldiers to the barracks, but has justified the use of the military in security tasks to confront the crime.
The actions of the Armed Forces in public security tasks have caused controversy in Mexico due to accusations of extrajudicial executions, forced disappearances and disproportionate use of force.
During the event, López Obrador was accompanied by his wife, the writer and researcher Beatriz Gutiérrez; of the Secretaries of the Interior, Luisa María Alcalde; of Security and Citizen Protection, Rosa Icela Rodríguez; of the Treasury, Rogelio Ramírez de la O; of Culture, Alejandra Frausto, and the mayor of Mexico City, Martí Batres, among other officials.
Protagonists of the commemoration
Thus, López Obrador celebrated his last Independence Day as president of Mexico with judicial reform and the military as protagonists, two of the main legacies of his administration.
Before the formal ceremony that began the celebrations around midnight on Sunday, he enacted his most controversial constitutional reform: the one that restructures the judicial power so that all judges are elected by popular vote.
In the traditional military parade, he honored the National Guard, the star force of his administration that has failed to pacify a country where cartels continue to control many territories and homicides have remained at worrying levels, around 30,000 a year.
In fact, several cities in the states of Sinaloa, Guanajuato and Nuevo León canceled celebrations due to the violence.
Unlike other commemorations or events with a presidential speech, on Monday López Obrador let the heads of the Army and Navy speak for him, who listed the achievements of the numerous new tasks that the president entrusted to them during his administration, which ends on the 30th. of September.
The night before, during the traditional Cry of Independence ceremony, the president repeated the protocol of other years but with different praise.
He cheered “for justice” and for the “fourth transformation”, the country’s political project that he began to promote when he came to power in 2018 and that he wanted to leave tied to twenty reforms to the Magna Carta. According to their critics, these could represent serious setbacks in the Mexican rule of law and in the separation of powers.
The judicial appeals of recent weeks did not prevent the restructuring of the entire judiciary from becoming a reality in Mexico with the constitutional changes published in the Official Gazette of the Federation on Sunday night. It is still uncertain how they will be implemented.
As the Supreme Court last year backed down that the National Guard could be under the command of the Army, considering it unconstitutional, López Obrador proposed another change to the Magna Carta to resolve that point. An initiative that, predictably, will be the next to be approved in Congress and will be one more step in the militarization of the country that has been carried out during his government.
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2024-09-27 09:25:14
