MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico's president announced a nationwide anti-crime plan Thursday that would allow Congress to dissolve local governments infiltrated by drug gangs and give state authorities control over often-corrupt municipal police. 
 
 Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto gestures after addressing the audience during a ceremony at the National Palace in Mexico City, Thursday, Nov. 27, 2014. Mexico's president announced a new anti-crime... (Associated Press) 
 
 Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto speaks during a ceremony at the National Palace in Mexico City, Thursday, Nov. 27, 2014. Mexico's president announced a new anti-crime plan that includes proposals... (Associated Press) 
 
 Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto speaks during a ceremony at the National Palace in Mexico City, Thursday, Nov. 27, 2014. Mexico's president announced a new anti-crime plan that includes proposals... (Associated Press) 
 
 Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto speaks during a ceremony at the National Palace in Mexico City, Thursday, Nov. 27, 2014. Mexico's president announced a new anti-crime plan that includes proposals... (Associated Press) 
 
 The plan announced by President Enrique Pena Nieto came two months after 43 teachers college students disappeared in the Guerrero city of Iguala, allegedly killed and incinerated by a drug gang working with local police. Huge marches have been held to protest their disappearance. 
 
 Pena Nieto suggested his plan was influenced by the Iguala tragedy, noting its "cruelty and barbarity have shocked Mexico." 
 
 "Mexico cannot go on like this," he said. "After Iguala, Mexico must change." 
 
 As if to underscore the problem, authorities said Thursday that they had found the decapitated, partly burned bodies of 11 men dumped on the side of a road near another Guerrero city. 
 
 The president's plan would also relax the complex divisions between which offenses are dealt with at federal, state and local levels. At present, some local police refuse to act to prevent federal crimes like drug trafficking. It would also seek to establish a national identity number or document, though it was unclear what form that would take. 
 
 The plan would focus first on four of Mexico's most troubled states — Guerrero, Michoacan, Jalisco and Tamaulipas. More federal police and other security forces would be sent to the "hot land" region overlapping the first two states, where the government has already sent significant contingents of federal police and soldiers. 
 
 "My response to the police operation in the 'hot lands' is: 'What? Another one?'" said Mexico City-based security analyst Alejandro Hope, alluding to a string of previous anti-crime initiatives in the area. "The same as the others, for a limited time and without the right conditions?" 
 
 The reforms, some of which would require constitutional changes, will be formally presented next week. They would include a single, nationwide emergency telephone number, which the president said could be "911," as in the United States. But Pena Nieto was vague in describing some of the proposals. 
 
 The focus on corrupt local governments reflects the shocking accusations made about the mayor of Iguala, Jose Luis Abarca. Prosecutors say he collaborated with a local drug gang and ordered the detention of the students by local police, who turned them over to gang gunmen. 
 
 Municipal governments currently enjoy high levels of autonomy and control their own police forces, something the president is now seeking to weaken. But it is not clear whether the plan proposes to eliminate local police forces, or simply change their command structure. 
 
 Similar broad, federal anti-crime plans announced in 2004 and 2008 brought some improvements in areas such as vetting of police officers, but failed to prevent some entire municipal police forces from being coopted by crime gangs. As a result, Mexicans have become skeptical of such announcements. 
 
 "More than announcements, the public needs to see concrete actions that make this rhetoric seem believable," said Pedro Torres, a law professor at the Tecnologico de Monterrey university's school of government. "There is definitely nothing new here that they haven't tried to implement before." 
 
 Pena Nieto began his administration in 2012 hoping to concentrate on economic and legal reforms and avoid the focus on drug-gang violence that dominated the term of his predecessor, Felipe Calderon. 
 
 Thursday marked Pena Nieto's first broad policy statement on the subject, a tacit acknowledgement that the issue had become unavoidable. 
 
 The 11 decapitated bodies were found early Thursday on a road near the Guerrero city of Chilapa, in an area that known for gang violence and plantations of opium poppies. It is not far from the rural teachers college attended by the missing students. The Guerrero state government said the victims had been shot to death and their heads were not found. 
 
 According to photos from the scene, a hand-lettered banner hung nearby suggested the dead men had been part of the "Ardillos" gang. 
 
 "Here is your garbage," read the banner, apparently put up by a rival gang. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press writer Mark Stevenson reported this story in Mexico City and Jose Antonio Rivera reported from Acapulco. ||||| Image copyright AFP Image caption President Pena Nieto had faced widespread criticism over the students' disappearance 
 
 Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has announced plans to overhaul the country's municipal police forces after the disappearance of 43 students. 
 
 He plans to put all local police units under federal control. 
 
 The students, all trainee teachers, went missing in September after joining a protest in Iguala, Guerrero state. 
 
 Their disappearance sparked mass protests, with many still unconvinced by the official explanation that the students were murdered by a drugs gang. 
 
 Mayor's arrest 
 
 In a televised speech, President Pena Nieto said that "Mexico must change". 
 
 He announced proposals for a series of constitutional reforms that would allow the country's 1,800 municipal forces to be dissolved and taken over by state agencies. 
 
 The reforms would also enable Congress to dissolve local governments infiltrated by drug cartels. 
 
 Image copyright EPA Image caption Relatives of the missing travelled across the country gathering support 
 
 The overhaul would begin in Mexico's four most violent states, he said - Tamaulipas, Jalisco, Michoacan and Guerrero. 
 
 Guerrero is where the 43 students vanished on 26 September. 
 
 They had been attacked by local police in Iguala after attending a labour rights demonstration. 
 
 Under President Pena Nieto's plans, the thousands of local police forces would come under the control of the 31 federal state governments, and the capital. 
 
 Corruption within the police force, especially the municipal police, is rife. Officers are often offered money or threatened by the country's powerful drugs gangs. 
 
 Image copyright Reuters Image caption Mr Pena Nieto said more police would be deployed to troubled zones 
 
 Key proposed reforms: 
 
 Replace the country's 1,800 municipal police units with state-level forces 
 
 Launch a single, nationwide phone number for emergencies 
 
 Assign national identity numbers or documents to Mexicans 
 
 Deploy more federal police to Guerrero, Michoacan, Jalisco and Tamaulipas 
 
 The proposals would also seek to simplify the way in which crimes are currently dealt with at a federal, state or local level. 
 
 Some local police forces refuse to deal with federal crimes such as drug trafficking. 
 
 The reforms are due to be presented to Congress next week. 
 
 President Pena Nieto had faced widespread criticism over the students' disappearance, despite vowing to track down those responsible. 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Thousands have been killed or disappeared in recent years 
 
 Relatives of the missing have led mass protests across the country to express their anger at the government. 
 
 The official explanation offered by the Mexican authorities is that the students were murdered by a drugs gang. 
 
 The gang was said to be in collusion with the mayor of Iguala, Jose Luis Abarca, who has been arrested facing accusations that he ordered police to confront the students on the day of their disappearance. 
 
 Investigators said that municipal police officers confessed to seizing the students, and later handing them over to the gang. 
 
 However, the families of the students, and their supporters, say they are not convinced by the official version of events. 
 
 They say they will not believe the students are dead until it has been officially confirmed by Argentine forensic scientists working on the case. 
 
 Forensic tests are being carried out on bodies found in mass graves in Guerrero. 
 
 In recent years thousands of people have gone missing or been killed after being caught up in drug-related violence. 
 
 Several killings or suspected kidnappings have been reported in the past week: ||||| Reuters, 18/11 22:59 CET 
 
 MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Grappling with outrage over violence and impunity after the apparent massacre of 43 trainee teachers, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on Tuesday accused unspecified groups of seeking to destabilise his government. 
 
 Protest marches over the crime, which the government has blamed on corrupt police in league with a drug gang and city officials, have overshadowed Pena Nieto’s efforts to boost years of sub-par economic growth via a raft of economic reforms. 
 
 The trainee teachers were abducted in late September by corrupt police working with a drug gang, and their remains were apparently incinerated. 
 
 Protests have yielded sporadic violence, with demonstrators setting fire to the doors of Pena Nieto’s ceremonial palace in central Mexico City, as well as torching or trashing regional government buildings and political party offices. 
 
 “Structural reforms and big changes have … without doubt affected interests of those who have much and of others who oppose our nation-building project,” Pena Nieto said. 
 
 “We have seen violent movements which hide behind the grief (over the missing students) to stage protests, the aim of which at times is unclear,” he added. “They seem to obey interests to generate instability, to foment social unrest.” 
 
 Pena Nieto is also on the back foot after the government angered China by revoking a $3.75 billion (2.39 billion pounds) high-speed train contract after opposition lawmakers claimed it was a stitch-up. 
 
 Compounding matters, it emerged that a Mexican group in the winning Chinese-led consortium owned a $7 million house that Pena Nieto’s wife was in the process of acquiring, raising questions about a possible conflict of interest in the bidding process. 
 
 Questions remain over the house. The government has not said how much first lady Angelica Rivera paid for it, nor why she was transferring funds directly to the firm that owned it. 
 
 As he set foot back in Mexico late on Saturday after a state visit to China, Pena Nieto was forced to address the house, saying he would clear up “imprecise and baseless assertions” on it. The government has yet do so. 
 
 On Tuesday, Pena Nieto said he had asked his wife to publicly explain how she came to acquire the property. 
 
 (Reporting by Ana Isabel Martinez; Writing by Simon Gardner; Editing by Leslie Adler)
– Mexican President Pena Nieto has promised sweeping reforms to the country's police amid nationwide outrage over the massacre of 43 students abducted by a local police force working with gang members. "Mexico must change," he said yesterday, unveiling plans to dissolve all 1,800 of the country's local police forces—many of which are notoriously corrupt and infiltrated by gang members—and replace them with state-wide forces, the BBC reports. The president's proposal would also allow the federal government to take over town governments corrupted by cartels. Most of Mexico's police officers belong to local forces and most of them make less than $500 a month, encouraging the corruption Pena Nieto aims to stamp out. But critics say the president is merely repacking initiatives already in progress and trying to repeat a few failed ones, and question is whether things will be any better if the police are put under unified control. "The root problem is the quality of the police, not who commands them," a public security expert tells the Wall Street Journal. "Many state forces are also a disaster." The president's plan will focus on four of the most violent states at first, including Guerrero, where the students were kidnapped and where 11 decapitated bodies were found dumped by a road yesterday, the AP reports.