BajaNews - 1-26-2013 at 05:49 PM
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/jan/07/mexicos-military-...
“It’s not the law, but it’s the will of the state government,” governor says.
By Sandra Dibble
JAN. 7, 2013
TIJUANA — Following this month’s rotation of military commanders in Baja California, the Mexican army will continue to lead crime-fighting efforts in
the region, Gov. José Guadalupe Osuna Millán said Monday.
In an interview at the Morelos military base near downtown Tijuana, the governor said army commanders will coordinate the state’s campaign against
both common crime and organized crime under a strategy known as mando único, or unified command.
“It’s not the law, but it’s the will of the state government,” Osuna Millán said.
The collaboration of the military and civilian law enforcement agencies in Baja California in recent years has put the state in the national spotlight
as an example of success in fighting drug violence. But critics of the military's role have said it came at a cost, an increase in human rights
abuses, and some say that the decrease in violence is due to a pact among drug trafficking groups.
The general previously at the helm, Alfonso Duarte Múgica, has been reassigned to Mexico City. His replacement is Gen. Gilberto Hernández Andreu, who
as commander of Mexico’s Second Military Region oversees the army in Baja California, Baja California Sur and much of Sonora.
The general on Monday joined the governor, Tijuana Mayor Carlos Bustamante and other civilian officials who gathered at the base to witness the the
swearing-in ceremony of Gen. Gabriel García Rincón, the new head of the Baja California’s Second Military Zone, which covers much of the state of Baja
California.