Mexican TV show scrubs police image
MEXICO CITY -- Mexico's latest drug battle does not unfold in the border badlands or remote mountains where opium poppies grow, but on the small screen, where a TV show strives to save the image of long-notorious "federales" by presenting them as crime-fighting heroes.
The TV series El Equipo, or The Team, is modeled after the popular CSI series in the U.S. and it was created to convince Mexicans, and now U.S. viewers, that the country has finally gotten its act together with a professional, trustworthy federal police force.
After a run on Mexico's Televisa network, with a middling 14.6 percent of the households as viewers, the show premieres on the U.S. Spanish-language network Univision on Thursday.
The series stars four street-smart investigative agents who are likable, honest and attractive. They rescue hostages and rappel from tall buildings. In every episode they get their man.
"We need to start changing the perception. There is nothing wrong with being a cop," said executive producer Pedro Torres. "Being a cop is a job that demands sacrifice and a lot of preparation."
While Torres says the show is his idea, the federal police have given the series so much cooperation, with access to its command center, equipment and a U.S.-donated Black Hawk helicopter, that critics are calling it government propaganda.
Police cooperation with TV shows isn't unusual in the United States, where scores of crime dramas have aired for years. But it irritates some in Mexico, where police shows are far less common.
One congresswoman filed a formal complaint with the anti-corruption ministry, demanding an accounting of public funds used to produce The Team.
"It is immoral to try to change the perception of security through a TV show," said federal Rep. Leticia Quezada of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party. "It is bread and circuses."
President Felipe Calderon of the conservative National Action Party has increased the number of federal police agents from 6,000 to more than 35,000 since he took office in 2006 while beefing up background checks and qualifications.
Still, Mexico's cops have had trouble shaking their bad reputation. Despite decades of repeated reforms, federal police officials keep finding their officers, and sometimes even themselves, accused of brutality or corruption.
The National Human Rights Commission said the federal police department was among the most-complained-about agencies last year.
Two federal police agents with top positions in Mexico's Interpol offices were arrested in 2009 and charged with taking payoffs from drug cartels. Even the acting federal police commissioner resigned in 2008 and was later arrested on charges of aiding a drug gang.
Mexico has gone through a string of federal police agencies since the 1970s, promoting each in turn as a cleaned-up alternative to the disgraced agency it replaced.
Torres said he wanted to produce an American-style TV crime series, inspired by the new model under Calderon.
"They know that good triumphs over evil" is the slogan of The Team.
The show portrays agents Santiago, Mateo, Magda and Fermin freeing kidnapping victims and snagging big-time drug traffickers. Their intelligence work tells them exactly when the capos arrive at airports or throw lavish parties, and they deploy SWAT-like teams of officers accordingly.