Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/MEXICO CITY: Over 6,000 national guard members will be deployed to stations and “other facilities” of the metro system in Mexico’s capital after a series of “unusual incidents,” Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum announced on Thursday.
Safety concerns have shaken public confidence in the transport system which is used by millions of people in the congested megacity.
Guards will guarantee passenger safety: mayor
Sheinbaum said in a tweet that the objective of the guards is to guarantee the safety of users, adding that the personnel would be unarmed.
The move comes after two metro trains collided in a tunnel on Saturday, killing a young woman and injuring dozens. It is the most serious incident since a section of elevated track collapsed in May 2021, killing 26 people and wounding dozens.
Other less serious but unusual incidents, including wheel issues, have also been reported in recent months, Sheinbaum said. She denied them being the result of budget cuts, as alleged by critics of the mayor, who is considered a leading candidate to replace President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador next year.
Obrador’s opponents have accused him of overseeing the country’s “militarization” by giving increased responsibility to the armed forces.
Commenting on the deployment of the National Guard in the metro, he said: “If they call that militarization or whatever they call it, we assume responsibility.”
Rights group Amnesty International expressed concern on the move and called for a “guarantee that public security tasks are carried out by civil institutions.”
