López Obrador appoints Rosa Icela Rodríguez as Secretary of Security

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has announced this Friday that he will ask Rosa Icela Rodríguez to be the next Secretary of Security of Mexico.

The president said in his morning press conference that he had not made a formal proposal to Rodríguez, the former secretary of the Government of Mexico City, because he is recovering from covid-19.

If she accepts the position to replace Alfonso Durazo, who announced her resignation last week to seek the governorship of the northern state of Sonora, she will be the first woman to hold that portfolio in the country.

"It will be Rosa Icela Rodríguez," the president insisted, although the confirmation of the appointment is still in the air.

Almost eight hours after the press conference, López Obrador has made it known on a work tour that he spoke with Rodríguez and that he was "surprised" by the proposal.

"He is thinking about it," said the president.

At the insistence of the media, the president said that he will appoint a dispatcher on Saturday and that it will be until Tuesday when there is an official appointment.

Rodríguez had recently been proposed to take over the management of the country's ports, in the process of being militarized.

López Obrador has said that, in addition to being the secretary, she will coordinate the Security Cabinet, which also includes the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of the Navy.

The power that the president has given to the Armed Forces has been questioned after the capture this month of General Salvador Cienfuegos, former Secretary of Defense in the Government of Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018), in Los Angeles.

Rodríguez would also be the highest ranking civilian in the strategy against insecurity and violence in the country.

"It will be a woman," said the president when making the announcement and after being questioned by the wave of femicides that hit the country, where 10 women are killed a day.

"Not even she knows", has assured López Obrador: "Let's see what she answers."

The president's bet is a multi-party strategy.

Woman, to answer the criticisms of the feminist movement.

Civil, to dispel doubts about his relationship with the military and about his security strategy, in the sights of the United States after the arrest of Cienfuegos.

And of his utmost confidence, to shore up his Cabinet about to pass a third of his term.

Rodríguez studied journalism at the Carlos Septién García School, a small university south of Mexico City, but did the bulk of his career in public administration.

In more than two decades of experience in the Government, the official has specialized in issues such as national security and governance.

Until the end of July he was the right hand of Claudia Sheinbaum, head of government of the capital.

That month he assumed the Coordination of Ports and Merchant Marine, after the president announced that he was going to hand over control of customs and port terminals to the military to combat drug trafficking and violence.

The turnaround also led to the departure of Javier Jiménez Espriú as Secretary of Communications and Transportation, who opposed the measure.

The vacancy was filled by Jorge Arganis Díaz Leal.

“I know she is going to play a great role,” Sheinbaum wrote on Twitter to congratulate her.

"She is a woman who comes from below, from a humble family," the president has described.

Rodríguez had already collaborated with López Obrador on security issues when he was head of the Government of Mexico City (2000-2005), in a strategy that divided the megalopolis into different coordinated areas to tackle the problem of crime.

She was also the Government and Security Coordinator with Marcelo Ebrard, López Obrador's successor in the capital and current Secretary of Foreign Relations.

Rodríguez has also been secretary of Social Development and secretary of Rural Development and Equity for Communities in the local government.

His appointment at the head of the ports of the country meant a first great leap to the federal administration.

The Secretariat of Security and Citizen Protection will be the task of greatest importance and responsibility in his career.

The departure of Durazo, whose tenure was marked by the increase in homicidal violence and a security strategy described as erratic by critics of the government, opened the way to all kinds of speculation about who would occupy the position.

In the deck were names like Ebrard and Omar García Garfuch, current Secretary of Security for Sheinbaum.

In practically none of the known forecasts was a woman.

The 2021 elections, which are shaping up to be a huge plebiscite around the figure of López Obrador in the middle of his term, have already caused the first rearrangements in the ruling bloc. Deputies, senators and members of the Government have come out in recent weeks to rule out or confirm their aspirations. At stake are 15 governorships and the renewal of the lower house. López Obrador, the first president to appoint a joint Cabinet, had set the deadline this Saturday, October 31 to accept resignations from his secretaries and has anticipated that there will be more changes in his team in the coming days. "There are going to be other [women]," he said before saying goodbye to his press conference.