WOLA: Advocacy for Human Rights in the Americas
Event

Militarization and Militarism in Mexico: Implications for Security and Democracy

11:00 a.m. EST Friday, 14 May 2021
Washington, D.C.

(AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

Since the intensification of the war on drugs and crime in Mexico nearly fifteen years ago—characterized by the deployment of the armed forces and the strategy of targeting drug kingpins—annual homicides have more than tripled. Since December of 2006, Mexico has registered approximately 350,000 homicides and the government reports 85,000 disappeared and missing people.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador pledged to transform the failed security strategy of his two predecessors. Nevertheless, he has deepened militarization both within and beyond the realm of public security, creating a militarized National Guard and assigning ever more civilian tasks to the armed forces. What do these decisions mean for the present and future of Mexico? How do they impact different sectors of Mexican society? What changes are needed to overcome a failed war and to consolidate human security and the rule of law?

Join WOLA Friday, May 14th at 11 a.m. EDT (10 a.m. Mexico City) as we welcome three experts from Mexico to share their analysis of the current state of militarization of public security, the impacts of militarization on women, and the growing involvement of the armed forces in non-security tasks.

Event Details:

Friday, May 14, 2021

11 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. EDT

Panelists:

Estefanía Vela Barba

Executive Director, Intersecta

Santiago Aguirre Espinosa

Director, Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Human Rights Center

Samuel Storr

Investigator, Citizen Security Program, Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City

Moderator:

Stephanie Brewer

Director for Mexico and Migrant Rights 

Simultaneous interpretation between English and Spanish will be available.

Register on Zoom below