Mexico’s top cop resigns amid protests

MEXICO CITY – Mexico’s top federal law enforcement officer, public security secretary Alejandro Gertz Manero, resigned Friday, a surprise move even though it came amid a growing public outcry against a national crime wave.

On June 27, an estimated 250,000 marchers took to the streets of Mexico City to protest the kidnappings, murders and robberies that have terrorized the capital and other large cities in recent months. It was believed the largest such protest on record.

Shortly after the demonstration, President Vicente Fox had said he would devise a sweeping plan within 60 days to improve public security. A Mexican business group that has lobbied for more stringent anti-crime measures warned this week that Mexico was on track to overtake Colombia as the nation with the most kidnappings. About 3,000 kidnappings are thought to occur annually here.

There was no indication Friday that Fox was blaming Gertz, 64, for the upsurge in crime. In a statement, Fox thanked Gertz for his “commitment to democratic change in Mexico.”

Fox cited Gertz’s personal reasons, including his eligibility for retirement and a desire to teach in a university, for his decision to step down.

The president announced that Interior Ministry undersecretary Ramon Martin Huerta will take Gertz’s position, which oversees the six federal police forces. Martin, 47, is a former federal deputy and governor of Guanajuato state.

At a news conference Friday after Fox issued his statement, Gertz reiterated he was leaving of his own volition and that he had asked Fox to respect his desire to return to private life and academia. Before his appointment, he served as secretary-general of the National Institute of Anthropology and History and as a professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. He also has worked as a federal prosecutor in labor matters.

At the beginning of his administration, Fox had been criticized for appointing Gertz, a member of the long-ruling Institution Revolutionary Party. Fox and his National Action Party ended the PRI’s seven decades of power with his 2000 victory.

Fox’s appointment of Gertz to the powerful public security post was seen as a conciliatory gesture to encourage the cooperation of the PRI on Fox’s reform efforts. But those efforts largely have floundered due to PRI intransigence in Mexico’s Congress.