 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 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. Their disappearance sparked mass protests, with many still unconvinced by the official explanation that the students were murdered by a drugs gang. "Mexico cannot go on like this," he said. Mayor's arrest 
 
 In a televised speech, President Pena Nieto said that "Mexico must change". At present, some local police refuse to act to prevent federal crimes like drug trafficking. 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. 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. The reforms, some of which would require constitutional changes, will be formally presented next week. 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. 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. The students, all trainee teachers, went missing in September after joining a protest in Iguala, Guerrero state.
– 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.