346 Journal of the Spanish Institute for Strategic Studies Núm. 8 / 2016 is underlined and the debate started on the disappearance of municipal police forces, or the conservation of those that are viable – especially in large urban areas – under a single command structure granted to the governors. The executive branch of the federal government and the state governors will position themselves on one side of the argument, while the mayors and federal legislators will be on the other – as happened during Felipe Calderón Hinojosa’s six-year term, and is happening during the term of Enrique Peña Nieto, who continues to debate this reform21. On the 21 August 2008, the XXIII Ordinary Session of the National Council for Public Security took place and the National Agreement on Security, Justice and Lega-lity was signed, with the participation of the executive, legislative and judicial organs, the media and civil society organisations. Astorga points out that «the obvious was acknowledged: corruption, impunity, lack of coordination between authorities, insecurity, violence, institutional deterioration in the areas of public security»22. During this session, ideas were set out on how to reconstruct police forces and make them more effective and reliable. A national system for police development was drawn up, as well as systems for the uniform organisation and functioning of all of the police forces in the country. There was a push for the strengthening of the Federal Police, the creation of a national criminal information system, the design and imple-mentation of a national model for control and reliability assessment, and for a process of cleaning-up of all of the police forces in the country23. one hand, leaving citizens almost completely helpless» (VALDÉS, Guillermo. Historia del narcotráfico en México, México: Aguilar, 2013, p.375). 21 BENITEZ MANAUT, Raúl. La guerra al narcotráfico en América Latina: ¿victoria militar, fraca-so social y político?» in MAINHOLD, Günther and JUST, Stefan El narcotráfico y su combate. Sus efectos sobre las relaciones internacionales. México: Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, Cátedra Guillermo y Alejando von Humbolt, SITESA, 2014, p.49 recalls that «One of the cornerstones of Mexico’s transition to democracy was a reduction in the power held by the president of the republic and an increase in the power of governors and mayors – through so-called «decentralisation». But instead of creating stronger democracy, what was created was an almost feudalised dispersion of power that favoured local groups. This led to a strengthening of all types of criminal groups – but especially of the drugs traffickers. The basic elements that upheld the stability of the country were thus dismantled and were not replaced by strong democratic govern-ance but rather by a notable weakness in the security, defence and justice structures that weren’t subjected to a modernising reform as required by the circumstances. This can be called a security dysfunction». 22 ASTORGA, Luis. ¿Qué querían que hiciera? México: Grijalbo, 2015, p.40. 23 VALDÉS, Guillermo. Historia del narcotráfico en México, México: Aguilar, 2013, p.435-436; BAILEY, John. Crimen e impunidad. Las trampas de la seguridad en México. México: Debate, 2014, p. 212) states that this was the government’s most complete declaration, committing the three levels of government to focus on 74 specific objectives. http://revista.ieee.es/index.php/ieee
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