{"id":8472,"date":"2024-02-21T13:44:57","date_gmt":"2024-02-21T18:44:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/?p=8472"},"modified":"2024-02-21T13:44:57","modified_gmt":"2024-02-21T18:44:57","slug":"mexicos-army-takes-over-yet-another-civilian-role-filling-potholes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/?p=8472","title":{"rendered":"Mexico\u2019s Army Takes Over Yet Another Civilian Role \u2014 Filling Potholes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/dims.apnews.com\/dims4\/default\/544267f\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/4426x2949+0+1\/resize\/980x653!\/format\/webp\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2Fcf%2F44%2F478542ae442109ac0ec2937b1247%2F8dbb144d0f0843fbad96a6f5296083fb\" width=\"980\" height=\"653\"><\/p>\n<p>Mexico\u2019s president acknowledged Tuesday that the armed forces have taken over yet another civilian role: fixing the nation\u2019s highways.<\/p>\n<p>Filling potholes has now been added to a long list of projects ranging from planes, trains and policing that&nbsp;<span class=\"LinkEnhancement\"><a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/mexico-army-airline-mexicana-79e5113bdeecd083d9376ebf34155165\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\">the armed forces now control<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>President&nbsp;<span class=\"LinkEnhancement\"><a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/andres-manuel-lopez-obrador\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\">Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador<\/a><\/span>&nbsp;said highway maintenance in southern Mexico had been transferred away from the government\u2019s Transportation Department.<\/p>\n<p>The department usually gave private companies contracts for road maintenance but L\u00f3pez Obrador claimed those contracts were too expensive and riddled with corruption.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are very few serious construction companies, because they were all rotten with corruption,\u201d the president said.<\/p>\n<p>L\u00f3pez Obrador has given the armed forces the leading role in law enforcement, including the quasi-military National Guard, and entrusted them with far more duties than his predecessors.<\/p>\n<p>Late last year, L\u00f3pez Obrador&nbsp;<span class=\"LinkEnhancement\"><a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/mexico-army-airline-mexicana-79e5113bdeecd083d9376ebf34155165\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\">put the army in charge of the government\u2019s new state-owned airline<\/a><\/span>. He also said the army would run a passenger train service, in addition to building everything from bank offices to airports.<\/p>\n<p>L\u00f3pez Obrador claims the military is more honest and efficient.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike many militaries in Latin America, Mexico\u2019s armed forces have for almost a century kept out of politics and avoided taking a leading, public role.<\/p>\n<p>Critics say L\u00f3pez Obrador\u2019s measures threaten to break that tradition and militarize the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mexico\u2019s president acknowledged Tuesday that the armed forces have taken over yet another civilian role: fixing the nation\u2019s highways. Filling potholes has now been added to a long list of projects ranging from planes, trains and policing that&nbsp;the armed forces now control. President&nbsp;Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador&nbsp;said highway maintenance in southern Mexico had been transferred away&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":8473,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dims.apnews.com\/dims4\/default\/544267f\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/4426x2949+0+1\/resize\/980x653!\/format\/webp\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2Fcf%2F44%2F478542ae442109ac0ec2937b1247%2F8dbb144d0f0843fbad96a6f5296083fb","fifu_image_alt":"Mexico\u2019s Army Takes Over Yet Another Civilian Role \u2014 Filling Potholes","footnotes":""},"categories":[185],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy-infrastructure"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/124"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8472"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8474,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8472\/revisions\/8474"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericasecurityreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}