In an unprecedented step, state police have disarmed officers in two Jalisco municipalities and confined them to barracks, under instructions from Jalisco Governor Aristoteles Sandoval.
The move follows President Enrique Peña Nieto’s recent announcement that he will seek to eliminate municipal police forces in Mexico and put local law enforcement in the hands of state authorities.
Twenty-six cops in Cocula and 45 in Casimiro de Castillo were obliged to hand in their weapons Monday as officers from the Jalisco’s Fuerza Única Regional (FUR) assumed responsibility for security in the municipalities. Government Secretary Roberto Lopez Lara said Sandoval took the decision to intervene after reports suggested that various officers in the two municipalities were involved with organized crime. The next day, state police arrested two senior officers on the Cocula force suspected of ties to drug gangs.
All the officers from Cocula and Casimiro de Castillo will be now resubmitted for strict “trustworthiness” exams before their futures are resolved.
Although Congress is still discussing the president’s proposed reforms, Sandoval said he was ready to take “preventative” and “aggressive” action to maintain law and order in Jalisco. He did not rule out taking similar measures in other municipalities.