The Federal Preventive Police (PFP) first rose to public attention last February in Mexico City when it dislodged the students who for months had occupied the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). In April it was sent to Chiapas, specifically to the Montes Azules ecological reserve, with the stated purpose of “being the guardians of the jungle” in the indigenous communities that had been established there since the 1970s. Later it was sent to the county of Chenalho to search for arms in the communities close to the sites of the ambushes that took place during May. And in Tila the PFP checks documents of citizens at the checkpoints set up by the Army. In all of these cases the PFP acts in conjunction with the Army, whether in joint patrols or at checkpoints. Its presence has increased the climate of tension and fear in the communities. The children and women are frightened and the men are inhibited from undertaking their daily activities.

It is helpful to understand better the origin of this police force and the actual functions it is given, beyond prevention.

The Federal Preventive Police Legislative Proposal was presented to Congress in November 1998. One month later the Federal Preventive Police Legal Decree was approved by Congress. On December 31, President Zedillo and Interior Minister Francisco Labastida approved its official publication and it became law.

The legislative proposal was reviewed and approved in a very short time. It includes an extensive exposition of its basis in the necessity of preventing crime as a response to public insecurity. For that purpose the Federal Preventive Police was proposed, bringing together the police forces of Immigration, Federal Highway Police, and others in order to establish “a police institution with a sphere of competence clearly limited to the function of preventing crime.”

However in the law as it was actually approved, a number of functions were included that do not appear to fit properly within the prevention of crime. The PFP was given a national scope and the capacity to act above other police corps, under the direction of the executive branch through the Ministry of the Interior.

Its field of action is very broad. It can conduct arrests, investigate crimes, undertake surveillance, conduct inspections on highways and public transport, and monitor the coming and going of merchandise and individuals in the airports. It can also participate in joint operations with other federal, state or county police, issue tickets, and protect the physical integrity of persons and their belongings.

The indigenous Zapatista communities publicly expressed their opposition to the deployment of the PFP, charging that it represents an act of aggression by the government. The Miguel Agustin Pro Human Rights Center declared that “the entrance of the PFP increases the polarization of the conflict,” and the National Human Rights Network “All Rights for Everyone” stated that “the PFP was being used to impose a new fence around the Zapatistas.”

Because of the functions authorized by the law, there is a big risk that the PFP may be utilized as another resource in the low intensity war against the indigenous communities. Its presence in the conflict areas increases the tension and impacts the dynamics as well as the possibilities for reactivating peace talks.