MEXICO CITY: Mexico's embattled president unveiled sweeping reforms Thursday to dissolve corruption-plagued municipal police forces nationwide amid an outcry over the role of gang-affiliated authorities in the presumed slaughter of 43 students.
More carnage hit Mexico hours before President Enrique Pena Nieto's announcement, with the discovery of 11 beheaded bodies in the troubled southern state of Guerrero -- the same region where the students were attacked in September.
"Society has raised its voice to say enough is enough," Pena Nieto said, echoing the anger of Mexicans who have joined a wave of protests over a case that has highlighted the country's struggle with police corruption.
"Mexico must change," said the president, who is facing the biggest challenge of his two-year-old administration, in a speech at the National Palace before congressmen, governors and civil society groups.
Pena Nieto said he would send a set of constitutional reforms to Congress on Monday to allow federal authorities to take over municipalities infiltrated by drug cartels.
He said the measures also include the dissolution of the country's 1,800 municipal police forces, "which can easily be corrupted by criminals."
Police duties would be taken over by state agencies in the country's 32 regions.
Critics said Pena Nieto was rehashing old ideas.
"It appears that the government merely reissues the same product with a different packaging," said the Americas director of Human Rights Watch, Jose Miguel Vivanco.
An official said the overhaul would first take place in four of the country's most violent states -- Tamaulipas, Jalisco, Michoacan and Guerrero -- by 2016.
It was in the Guerrero city of Iguala where the 43 students vanished on September 26 after they were attacked by local police.
Prosecutors say Iguala's mayor ordered his police force to confront a group of students over fears they would disrupt a speech by his wife.
Guerreros Unidos gang henchmen confessed to killing the students and incinerating their bodies after officers turned them over.
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