Gendarmerie, Polisi Khusus Meksiko Penumpas Kartel Narkoba
Strong Arm of the Law to Combat Drug Cartels in Mexico
Editor : Ismail Gani
Translator : Novita Cahyadi
MEKSIKO meluncurkan kepolisian khusus berkekuatan 5.000 personel, belum lama ini, untuk memerangi tindak kriminal terhadap industri, pertanian dan perdagangan yang meluas ke seluruh perekonomian negara, bahkan mengancam kegiatan perdagangan di negara tersebut.
Geng narkoba telah lama merambah ke sektor pertambangan dan pertanian di Meksiko, namun para pejabat setempat mengungkapkan bahwa setiap warga mulai dari nelayan hingga wisatawan dan petani pisang terancam aksi pemerasan, penculikan dan pencurian oleh geng.
Dalam beberapa kasus, seperti di bagian barat Michoacan, kartel dan geng menghambat kegiatan perdagangan dan 'bahkan tukang cukur tidak berani melayani pelanggan. Seluruh tatanan sosial rusak," kata Komisaris Keamanan Nasional Alejandro Monte Rubido.
Kekuatan baru, yang disebut sebagai Gendarmerie, terdiri dari rekrutmen baru yang rata-rata berusia 28 dan belum pernah bertugas di kepolisian. Mereka dilatih oleh tentara Meksiko dan komandan pasukan mendapat pelatihan dari kepolisian Kolumbia, Chili, Spanyol, Prancis dan Amerika Serikat, seperti dilansir MailOnline.
Anggota Gendarmerie akan menjadi divisi dari polisi federal dan akan dikirim ke daerah-daerah di mana ada kejahatan terorganisir dan minim kegiatan ekonomi lantaran kegiatan produksi dibatasi oleh para kriminal.
"Para petugas yang baru direkrut ini ... dilatih untuk melayani penduduk dengan berjalan kaki, dan menunggang kuda, di pedesaan, perkotaan, tempat wisata dan kawasan perbatasan," kata Presiden Enrique Pena Nieto.
Kebanyakan warga Meksiko telah lama menyadari bahwa sebagian wilayah negara itu dihantui masalah serupa, seperti Michoacan, misalnya kartel Knights Templar yang mengancam petani demi mendapatkan pungutan liar dari hasil produksi pertanian dan mereka juga memeras industri bijih besi. Di negara bagian perbatasan utara Tamaulipas, para kriminal menuntut perusahaan untuk membayar uang perlindungan.
Lembaga statistik nasional Meksiko memperkirakan bahwa pada 2012, data terbaru menyebutkan kejahatan yang merugikan Meksiko mencapai US$16,5 miliar atau sekitar 1,3% dari pendapatan domestik bruto (PDB).
Luis Montoya Morelia, kepala polisi federal di Tamaulipas, mengatakan aksi kekerasan kartel Zetas mengancam nelayan di pantai Teluk, memaksa mereka untuk menjual hasil tangkapan mereka ke kartel hanya 7 sen per kilogram. Geng itu kemudian menjualnya kembali di pasar terdekat dengan harga normal.
Rubido menambahkan para peternak sapi di Meksiko selatan yang membeli sorgum di luar negeri karena tak seorang pun akan menyewa mesin panen untuk petani sorgum di Tamaulipas, tampaknya takut kartel akan membakar atau mencuri peralatan mereka.
MEXICO launched a special 5,000-strong police force recently to combat industrial, farm and business crime that has extended throughout the country's economy, strangling commerce in some regions.
Drug gangs have long penetrated some Mexican mining and agricultural sectors, but officials now reveal that everyone from fishermen to tourist resorts to banana growers have been hit by the wave of extortion, kidnapping and thefts by the gangs.
In some cases, like the western state of Michoacan, the cartels and gangs cut down trade so much that 'even the barbershops weren't serving customers. The whole social fabric broke down,' said National Security Commissioner Monte Alejandro Rubido.
The new force, known as the gendarmerie, is made up of fresh recruits whose average age is 28 and who have never served on another police force. Its officers were trained by the Mexican army and its commanding officers got training from police forces from Colombia, Chile, Spain, France and the US
Gendarmerie members will be a division of the federal police and will be sent to areas where there is an organised crime presence and there is no economic activity because production is being restricted by the criminals.
'The officers of the new gendarme force ... are trained to serve the population on foot, and on horseback, in rural, urban, tourist and border zones,' President Enrique Pena Nieto said.
Most Mexicans had long been aware that parts of the country had such problems, such as Michoacan, where the Knights Templar cartel told farmers when to plant and took a cut on every product and even ran the iron ore industry. In the northern border state of Tamaulipas, demands for businesses to pay protection money have been common.
Mexico's national statistics institute estimated that in 2012, the latest figures available, that crime cost the country about $16.5 billion, or 1.3 percent of GDP.
Luis Montoya Morelia, the head of federal police in Tamaulipas, said the hyper-violent Zetas cartel had threatened fishermen on the Gulf coast, forcing them to sell their catch to the cartel for just 7 cents per kilogram (3 cents per pound). The gang would then apparently take the fish to market and sell it for full price.
Rubido said cattle ranchers in southern Mexico were buying sorghum abroad because nobody would rent harvesting machines to sorghum growers in Tamaulipas, apparently fearing the cartels would burn or steal the equipment.
