The Federal Police (Spanish: Policía Federal, PF), formerly known as the Policía Federal Preventiva (Federal Preventive Police) and sometimes referred to in the U.S. as "Federales",[2] was a Mexican national police force formed in 1999. In 2019 it was incorporated into the National Guard and operated under the authority of the Department of Security and Civil Protection.
The Federal Police was formed through the merger of four previously independent federal police agencies — the Federal Highway Police, the Fiscal Police, the Investigation and National Security Center, and the Mexican Army's 3rd Military Police Brigade — and was initially referred to as the Federal Preventive Police.
Throughout its 20-year existence, the Federal Police was dogged by allegations of widespread corruption and abuse — allegations which President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said influenced his administration's decision to disband the force.[3] Since its disbandment, two high-ranking commanders have been arrested for offences they committed while leading the Federal Police.[3][4]
The police force was 1,870,406,000 pesos in debt to creditors, members of the public, and former employees when it was disbanded.[5]
On May 29, 2009, the Federal Preventive Police name was changed to Federal Police, and some duties were added to it. The Federal Police was created as the main Federal Preventive Police in 1999 by the initiative of President Ernesto Zedillo (1994–2000) to prevent, combat and to enforce the law that drugs will not run around on Mexico's streets. The PF has been assuming its authority in stages over time, as its budget has grown and it has combined and reorganized police departments from major agencies such as those for migration, treasury, and highways. Many large bus stations and airports in Mexico are assigned a PF detachment.
Public Safety Secretary Genaro García Luna hoped to reform the nation's long-troubled police. Among other steps, he consolidated several agencies into a Federal Police force of nearly 25,000.[6]
The Federal Police celebrates its anniversary on July 13 every year (Federal Police Day), with its history dating to 1928 as the successor of the agencies mentioned above.
The Mexican Federal Preventive Police was an agency created by the Mexican Highway Patrol in 1999. It was replaced by the Mexican Federal Police due to corruption problems and bribing issues. On May 30, 2009, the Mexican Federal Police took over the PFP's duties as the Federal Ministerial Police which also took over the Mexican Federal Investigative Agency's duties.
When Felipe Calderón took office as president in 2006, there were roughly half a dozen drug cartels in Mexico. Each of the organizations was large and dominated huge parts of Mexico's territorial landscape, and operated internationally and overseas as well.[7] When Calderón assumed the presidency, he realized that he could not rely on the federal police nor the intelligence agencies to restore order and crack down the logistics of the mafias.[7] Over several decades, the cartels had bribed police commanders and top politicians; and often riddled with corruption, state authorities would not only fail to cooperate with other authorities in distinct federal levels, but would actively protect the cartels and their leaders. With limited options available, Calderón turned to the Mexican Armed Forces, which, because of its limited involvement in acting against the cartels, remained relatively immune to corruption and organized crime infiltration.[7] He then moved the military to parts of Mexico most plagued by drug-violence to target, capture, and – if necessary – kill the leaders of the drug trafficking organizations. Yet, the president understood that the military could not fight the cartels alone and needed cops to rely on for patrolling, collecting intelligence information, and gathering evidences necessary to prosecute drug traffickers.[7]
With the argument that he was tired of the corruption, Calderón abolished the AFI agency created in May 2009 and created an entirely new police force.[7] The new force has formed part of Mexico's first national crime information system, which stores the fingerprints of everyone arrested in the country. They also have assumed the role of the Army in several parts of the country. According to The New York Times, the federal police have avoided "any serious incidents of corruption."[7]
On October 21, 2008, President Felipe Calderón proposed to break the former Federal Preventive Police to replace it with a different organization, because "the PFP has not yielded the expected results and has not been a strong institution capable of serving as a model for all police services in the country."[8][9] The new corporation became the Federal Police. It provides support to the police as to the Federal District, states and municipalities. This decision was said to be not entirely unexpected, given the insufficient number of convictions, the alarming increase of violence, abductions and cases of corruption and complicity with organized crime elements.[10][11][12][13][14][15]
In 2012, it was reported that President Enrique Peña Nieto's government had proposed the creation of a new unit to replace all Federal Police duties.[16] The Federal Police would not be disbanded, but they would be assigned to special tasks and missions.[citation needed] Additional information on Mexico's planned gendarmerie was on the website MexiData.info on December 24, 2012.[17]
In 2014, the Federal Police's Gendarmerie Division was created with 5,000 police agents. Its focus is on providing ongoing public security in areas with heavy criminal activities and providing border security. It is also expected to reinforce state, city, and municipal police forces as needed. It is one of the seven constituent divisions of the Federal Police, reporting directly to the Commissioner, and the newest to be incepted.
The National Gendarmerie is defined as a military grade force within the Federal Police.
Before becoming President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador campaigned on a promise to take the military off the streets of Mexico.[18] Shortly after getting into office, Obrador released a plan to create the National Guard under control of the Mexican Armed Forces which would be in charge of "preventing and combating crime".[18][19] Obrador stated that the new National Guard would be critical to solving Mexico's ongoing security crisis.[20][21]
On 28 February, Mexico's General Congress voted to approve a 60,000-member national guard.[21] On 30 June 2019, the National Guard was officially established in the Constitution of Mexico.[22]
The new National Guard, de facto successor to a similar formation raised in 1821 and abolished in 1935, is composed today of personnel from parts of both the National Gendarmerie and Federal Forces Divisions of the Federal Police.[23]
In 2000, the PF had 10,878 agents and staff:
Regulation of the Law of the Federal Police in the Official Gazette of May 17, 2010, to establish the basic organizational structure of this Decentralized Administrative Body, Article 5 of that system, comprising a total of 136 seats of middle and senior management, broken 130 seats structure, as shown below:
See article: National Gendarmerie (Mexico)