Newly elected Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Thursday that instead of the armed secret service that protected his predecessors, he will have 20 unarmed women and men, including lawyers, doctors and engineers, Reuters reports.
Since his landslide victory in the July 1 election, the leftist politician has portrayed himself as the president of the "ordinary people" and renounced traditional presidential privileges.
Reuters reports that the fact that Obrador does not want armed bodyguards has sparked public fear in a country struggling with political violence, gangs and cartels.
During the presidential campaign in Mexico, there were more deadly attacks on politicians than ever before, and the epidemic of gang violence was the bloodiest in modern Mexican history.
In his first statement just a day after winning the election, Lopez Obrador said he would elect ten women and ten men who would not be armed. He does not consider them bodyguards, but "support".
''They will take care of me. These women and men, and all Mexicans will take care of me. And when I talk about all Mexicans, I'm talking about the soldiers, because the soldiers are the people,'' said Lopez Obrador.
"All Mexicans will watch out for me, but there will be no special (state) service that will guarantee the protection of the president," he added.
Lopez Obrador also told former President Enrique Peña Nieto, who is under the protection of two thousand armed guards made up of military personnel, police, and civilians, that he would rather take a much smaller security team, according to Reuters.
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