Armando Zúñiga Salinas, president of the United Security Groups for a Mexico (ASUME), asked Congress to approve the General Law of Private Security, since it is a complement to the public forces at times where violence and insecurity are on the rise.
“The growing public insecurity in Mexico has led the private security sector to play an essential role as a complement to public forces,” declared the businessman.
He said that since May 2021, a constitutional reform was approved that empowered Congress to issue the law, “although the deadline expired in November of the same year, we are still waiting for its promulgation, the Ministry of Security and Citizen Protection has advanced on a project and we trust “that it will soon be approved under the leadership of Omar García Harfuch.”
He indicated that the law will benefit industry, companies and society: “With this law, we will be able to guarantee more reliable and effective services, reduce risks, attract investments and strengthen collaboration between public and private security. This will translate into a significant improvement in the perception of security in the country.”
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He pointed out that private security is an indispensable pillar for the tranquility of people and the economic development of Mexico: “As a sector, we are ready to collaborate with the government and contribute to the construction of a safer and more orderly environment.”
“In Mexico there is a high level of informality, a lack of approved standards and little coordination with public authorities, which puts companies and citizens at risk,” he said.
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“The law should have been issued 3 years ago and its objective is to immediately guarantee a legal framework that guarantees security services with a high quality standard,” he commented.
“The General Private Security Law is very important because it adds to the country’s security strategy. This sector, with more than 600 thousand elements, takes care of companies, residential areas and institutions and can represent up to a million jobs,” he said.
“The sector faces obstacles that must be urgently considered. One of them is the lack of uniform regulation, since private security in Mexico is governed by a series of dispersed and outdated rules and regulations. “This has created a legal vacuum that allows private security companies to operate without the necessary controls and supervision,” he added.
“Currently, we operate under a fragmented scheme: an obsolete Federal Law, 32 state laws and hundreds of municipal regulations. This regulatory diversity generates more than 500 contradictions that complicate the operation of companies and, what is worse, encourage corruption and unfair competition,” he said.
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“A uniform regulatory framework would improve the quality of service through trained and certified companies, guarantee decent working conditions for workers and strengthen user confidence by combating informality,” he noted.
