In a shock move, Mexican President, López Obrador has handed over control of the nation’s land and maritime customs offices to the armed forces, claiming the civilian National Customs Agency (NCA) was riddled with corruption.
The military is to have exclusive responsibility for inspecting goods entering the country via land borders, ports and airports.
The Ministry of the Navy is to control 17 maritime customs offices as well as the one at the Mexico City International Airport, while the Ministry of National Defence – which controls the army – is to take over offices at land borders with the United States, Guatemala and Belize, along with those at many airports, including the new Felipe Ángeles International Airport.
Mr López Obrador defended his decision to assign responsibility for customs to the military, on which he has relied for a wide range of non-traditional tasks since taking office in late 2018.
“It’s more than proven that [customs officials] made a killing,” Mr López Obrador told reporters at his regular news conference.
“Corruption dominated, it reigned,” he said.
“I’m not saying that all Public Servants are corrupt, there are honest people.”
Mr López Obrador said customs generated one trillion pesos ($A70 billion) in revenue annually for the Government and for that reason he couldn’t leave things as they were.
“Corruption has to be combated to allow us [to have] a source of funding for the development of our country and for the benefit of the people,” the President said.
The Government reported in December that more than 2,700 Customs Agents had been dismissed for corruption in recent years.
Customs Agents are commonly dismissed for asking for and accepting bribes in exchange for allowing people to bring undeclared or illegal goods into the country.
Mexico City, 30 May 2022
