The deployment of the National Guard to 200 regions across the country is one of several new year’s resolutions outlined by Security Secretary Alfonso Durazo in a series of Twitter posts.

The federal government is beginning 2020 with “things to do and challenges,” Durazo wrote in the first of five New Year’s Day posts.

“We will continue combating corruption in the security forces and will not give any concession to uniformed crime that protects organized crime,” he said.

The security secretary asserted in his second post that the government’s welfare programs will continue to create opportunities this year, particularly for the nation’s youth and poorest people.

“We will continue moving forward to eliminate all activities and conditions that are generators of violence,” Durazo wrote in reference to the government’s so-called abrazos no balazos (hugs not bullets) security strategy that favors addressing the root causes of crime over combating it with force.

In his third post, the secretary said the government will deploy the National Guard to 50 new regions in 2020 to bring the total number of regions covered by the new security force to 200.

Durazo said that 21,170 new guardsmen will be recruited in order to bolster the National Guard’s presence in the entire country.

“The organizational and administrative maturing” of the force will continue to be a priority for the government, he added.

The National Guard, which has drawn most of its approximately 90,000 members from the Federal Police and armed forces, was formally inaugurated on June 30, 2019 and deployed to 150 regions the next day.

However, it failed to make any significant progress in reducing violence in the second half of last year, which is almost certain to go down as the most murderous in recent history.

In his fourth Twitter post, Durazo said the government will continue moving ahead with a “reorganization” process in the nation’s prisons in order to combat the criminal activity that is organized within them.

“We will especially work on the implementation of the new national policing model and coordination for the strengthening of state and municipal police,” he added.

The security secretary wrote in his fifth and final January 1 Twitter post that the government expects that “with these measures, and the will, unity and participation of everyone, 2020 will be a year of very good results for the recovery of peace” in Mexico.

Source: Reforma (sp)