Empowerment and Protection - Stories of Human Security Oct. 2014 | Page 64

MEXICO

POPULATION

Citizen empowerment
and security

Citizens and representatives from the three levels
of government participated in Mesa de Seguridad.
It was a true multi-stakeholder dialogue. The basic
assumption was that civil society and government
acting together could better identify the priority
areas, generate and implement concrete proposals,
and follow-up and evaluate the results of those
proposals. This committee was so effective in
generating trust and carrying out different strategies
that it is still in place, even though the Todos somos
Juárez initiative officially ended in 2012.

emergence has drawn national and international
media attention and forced the government
to start a dialogue with those affected by
violence. As stated by an interviewee, “These
movements have expressed their weariness of
the government’s ineffectiveness, yet they are not
asking for ‘iron fist’ policies that could generate
more violence or abuses. They are asking for
integral solutions.”

The crisis of insecurity, violence and human rights
violations that exists in Mexico has led to a myriad of
responses from the population. As one interviewee
from Ciudad Juárez describes, “People were outraged.
(WORLD BANK 2014)
Everyone knew what was going on and how law
enforcement institutions were in part responsible
for the increase of violence. But we were also very
=10.000.000
scared.” Citizen responses range from individual
strategies – avoiding going out at night, installing
alarm systems in homes, armouring automobiles,
hiring private security – to collective responses.
Some citizens have resorted to non-functional,
semi-legal responses that perpetuate the cycles of
The state-civic partnership
violence.9 The main non-functional response is the
Hugo Almada
self-arming of civilians, a growing phenomenon
in western Mexico. As an interviewee said, “If
Hugo Almada is the dean of the graduate program
the state cannot guarantee my safety I must do it
on Humanist Psychotherapy and Peace Education
myself, and the easiest way of doing that is getting a
of the Autonomous University of Ciudad Juárez. He
gun. This logic explains the recent emergence of the
is also a social activist and one of the members of
autodefensas [armed civilian groups or vigilantes] in
the Mesa de Seguridad initiative, which originated in
some parts of the country.”
Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, which was classified as
Others have initiated functional collective
the most dangerous city in the world from 2008
responses that both complement and/or monitor
to 2010.10
the state. Two types of collective, functional
responses to insecurity stand out: multistakeholder dialogue platforms that enable citizens
2014)
and civil society to influence public policies and
legislation, and national social movements whose
The origins of the Mesa de Seguridad
This initiative emerged because of three different
factors. The first one is the security crisis itself,
which prompted the participation of different
stakeholders: universities, nongovernmental
organisations, and business groups. Second, several
civil society efforts were already in place when the
violence escalated, like the 'Citizen Observatory for
Security' and the 'Juarenses for Peace Group', which
were both groups of citizens that met regularly to
discuss the security situation in the town. Finally,
the third factor has to do with Calderón’s idea to
invite civil society to participate in an initiative
called Todos somos Juárez (We are all Juárez) to
address the seven most urgent issues of the city,
including insecurity and violence. The Mesa de
Seguridad is the committee that was created within
the Todos somos Juárez initiative to discuss issues
regarding insecurity and violence and to identify
solutions in a collaborative way.

122.3 MILLION IN 2013

Today, the Mesa de Seguridad has several
subcommittees that address access to justice,
immediate response to threats, violent theft, human
rights, and performance indicators. All three levels
of government continue to participate in the Mesa
de Seguridad.

POPULATION
DISTRIBUTION BY AGE
27,9%
18,1%
40,4%
7%
6,6%

Accomplishments of Mesa de Seguridad

Mesa de Seguridad has fostered sincere dialogue
between citizens and authorities and it has
contributed to developing trust among different
stakeholders from civil society and between
them and the authorities. It has also fostered
collaboration between different levels of
government and different authorities.

0-14
15-24
25-54
55-64
65+

(INDEX MUNDI

Thanks to the pressure of the Mesa de Seguridad,
the federal government had to change its strategy
from 'territorial control' – the massive deployment
of soldiers, mar