Mexico National Guard: New troops to fight violent crime, patrol borders

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The first quarter of 2019 is now on record for Mexico as its deadliest ever with more than eight thousand murders reported. It's that kind of violence that Mexican President Andres Manual Lopez Obrador wants to address through the creation of a new National Guard. CGTN's Alasdair Baverstock reports from the Michoacan State.

As Mexico copes with a surge in street violence, a new security force is gearing up. It's been named the Guardia Nacional - the National Guard - established by the country's president to combat organized crime. At full strength, the force will number 60-thousand members.

ANDRES MANUEL LOPEZ OBRADOR MEXICAN PRESIDENT "We have established the National Guard to tackle a problem that is of concern to millions of Mexicans - that of public safety."

ALEJANDRO HOPE SECURITY EXPERT "The National Guard is something of a Gendarmerie-type force, something of an intermediary force between the military and the police."

Alejandro Hope is Mexican security expert, and has carefully studied the founding of the new National Guard.

ALEJANDRO HOPE SECURITY EXPERT "It will be dominated by the military directly. Its first commander will be a general, and more than two-thirds of its initial members will come from the army or the navy. So whereas in most of these forces we are seeing a trend towards more civilian control, what we are seeing in Mexico is a trend towards more military control."

ALASDAIR BAVERSTOCK MORELIA, MEXICO "One of the National Guard's first deployments will be here, to the troubled state of Michoacan, where entire districts are governed by organized crime. It was here in 2006 where the country's War on Drugs was launched, when the sitting president sent 6,500 troops into this conflictive region."

The Michoacan campaign ultimately failed. The region remains one of the country's most violent, and in the 13 years since it began, Mexico's War On Drugs has cost an estimated 150,000 lives.

Circe Lopez is the president of Humanas Sin Violencia, a local anti-violence organization that sees little chance the new National Guard will be any more successful.

CIRCE LOPEZ ANTI-VIOLENCE ACTIVIST "The National Guard represents a strategy that has already failed, and caused terrible consequences for Michoacan that we are still struggling with to this day. Militarization only made things worse, yet these facts have not entered into consideration, and there is no willingness from the federal government to listen or to seek alternative measures."

The National Guard is also being deployed to Mexico's borders in the south as well as the north - to help put the brakes on Central American migrants traveling through Mexico towards the US. As the new security force sees its first action, the wider country will be watching and awaiting the results. Alasdair Baverstock, CGTN, Michoacan State, Mexico.