Mexican Military

The Mexican military forces are formed by two distinct components, instead of
the usual three found in most countries. The largest, best funded is the Army, which includes the Air Force as
a subordinate entity. The second is the Navy. The two components
do not come under a single unified commander at any level below
the President. That is to say, there is no Minister of Defense as the
term is usually understood. Instead, a Minister who is a serving
officer—a four-star general in the case of the Army and an Admiral
in the case of the Navy—heads each of the component parts. Each
minister serves in a dual capacity: as a full cabinet member reporting
to the President, and as the operational commander of his force. (The
Presidential Guard is a separate entity.) The ministers are handpicked
by the President, and may or may not serve in that position for the
entire sexenio (period of office) of the incumbent president.10 In the
halcyon days of the PRI as ruling party, the selection of ministers was
generally a pro-forma exercise, with strict attention being paid to
seniority. In the past two sexenios, however, both Presidents Ernesto
Zedillo (1994–2000) and Vicente Fox (2000 to the present) strayed
from the norm and reached down into more junior levels to select
what some have described as “more progressive” officers to lead the
forces during times of change and, of course, support the President’s
agenda. It is certainly true that since 1995 the military as a whole has
come under much more intense public scrutiny, both domestically
and internationally, and the challenges to the leadership to permit
greater openness, better fiscal accountability to the public, and more
productivity in pursuing new missions will no doubt persist.
The current ministers, General Vega García and Admiral Peyrot,
are considered by most observers to be progressive and academic
in nature and background, although they have not strayed far from
the monolithic image usually associated with the Mexican military.
The public does not get much insight into whatever internal debates

and dialogue may be occurring within the institution, and both
services continue to be responsive instead of proactive in terms of
public relations. The armed forces indeed have developed public
access websites, but the content of these essentially is limited to basic
information.
Returning briefly to the matter of the subordination of the Air
Force to the Army, it must be pointed out that although there is a
defacto Air Force commander, he and his staff are embedded in the
Army headquarters, and an Air Force officer never has risen to the
most trusted senior positions within the hierarchy. This subordination
has allowed the Army to use the term “National Defense” (SEDENA)
for its organizational structure, and General Vega García and his
predecessors have held the title of Minister of Defense (much to the
annoyance of the Navy).

Organization.
Both the Army and Navy are organized on a regional dispersion
basis. There are centralized national headquarters in Mexico City
and many subordinate regional headquarters. Historically, this
has proven to be effective, as the military’s main employment has
been on domestic missions. Troops are stationed throughout the
country to serve as an ongoing presence of authority and to allow
for immediate response to crises. This regional dispersion also has
facilitated programs of local recruitment for noncommissioned
members, allowing them to stay near their families during their
service, an important cultural consideration. Officers, on the other
hand, are expected to be more mobile, moving between remote posts
and to the center in Mexico City with great frequency. This provides
experience and, from an historical context, prevents any senior officer
from staying too long in one location, developing local allegiances
and potentially becoming too powerful. The current strength of the
forces is about 241,000.
Enrollment is voluntary, although nominally a draft system
exists whereby a proportion of young men on their 18th birthday are
selected by lottery. Those so selected attend weekend training that
emphasizes education, history, physical fitness, and discipline. These
recruits also act as a labor pool for a variety of public works social
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programs, such as tree trimming, clean-up of urban areas, painting
schools, etc. Officer candidates from all three services are trained
in a military college, in Mexico City for the Army, in Guadalajara
for the Air Force, and in Veracruz for the Navy. Officer candidates
generally are selected from the lower and middle classes, and this
therefore is seen as a mechanism for upward social mobility for
the less privileged and less educated sectors of the population. The
military colleges are not universities, but rather provide significant
technical training related to employment after graduation in the
various branches of the services. Great emphasis is also placed on
military ethos (patriotism, honor, and loyalty), history, discipline,
physical fitness, and perpetuating the institution. The Armed Forces,
although among the respected institutions in the country, suffer from the corruption and ineptitude, typical of government institutions in this country.
The Army and the Air Force.
There are three main components of the Army: a national
headquarters, territorial commands, and independent units. The
Minister of Defense commands the Army by means of a very
centralized system and a large number of general officers. The Army
uses a modified continental staff system in its headquarters (see
Figure 2).
At present there are 12 Military Regions (see Figure 3), which
are further broken down into 44 subordinate Military Zones. In both
cases, a numbering system is used for designation. There is no set
number of zones within a region, and these can therefore be tailored
to meet operational needs, with a corresponding increase or decrease
in troop strength.
Chief among the independent troops is an Army Corps consisting
of two mechanized infantry brigades located in Mexico City, with a
full complement of combat and support troops. In addition, there
are two brigades of the Corps of Military Police, Special Forces units,
Presidential Guards (another motorized brigade) and a parachute
brigade—all located in Mexico City where they act as a ready reserve
and as centers of excellence.

The Air Force.
As mentioned earlier, the Air Force national headquarters is
embedded in the Army headquarters in Mexico City. It also follows the
continental staff system, with the usual A1, A2, A3, and A4 sections.
The tactical forces form what is loosely called an Air Division, but
it is dispersed in four regions—Northeast, Northwest, Central, and
Southern. The Air Force maintains a total of 18 air bases, and has the
additional capability of opening temporary forward operating bases
in austere conditions for some of the rotary wing and light fixedwing
assets.

The Navy.
The Ministry of the Navy, the Navy’s national headquarters, is
located in the southern part of the capital, Mexico City. It is a smaller
organization than the Army’s. Its main components are shown
in Figure 4. The “Junta (or Council) of Admirals” plays a unique
consultative and advisory role within the headquarters, an indication
of the institutional importance placed on seniority and “year groups”
that go back to the admirals’ days as cadets in the naval college.
They are a very tightly knit group, and great importance is placed
on consultation among the factions within year groups: the Navy
speaks with one voice.
The Navy’s operational forces are organized as two independent
groups: the Gulf (East) Force and the Pacific (West) Force. Each
group has its own headquarters, a destroyer group, an auxiliary
vessel group, a Marine Infantry Group, and a Special Forces group.
The Gulf and Pacific Forces are not mirror images of each other, as
independence of organization is permitted. Both are subdivided into
regions, with Regions 1, 3, and 5 on the Gulf, and 2, 4, and 6 on
the Pacific. Each region is further divided into sectors and zones,
so a proliferation of headquarters and senior officers exists. The
Navy also has an air arm with troop transport, reconnaissance, and
surveillance aircraft.
Recently the Navy has ceded most of its riverine responsibilities
(formally handled by the Marines) to the Army, and has reduced
the size of the Marine force, putting them back aboard ships where
they play a vital role in drug interdiction and boarding of suspect
vessels in territorial waters. The Navy maintains some impressive
infrastructure, including naval dockyards that have the capability
of building ships, such as the Holzinger class gunboats. These
dockyards have a significant employment and economic impact in
country.

SIZE AND SCOPE

Compared to most Latin American armies, the Mexican Army is one of the smallest by its numbers and its budget. In 1989 , it was 0.4% of the Gross Internal Product. In 1999 , Mexico's military budget had swelled to 1% of GDP, at $4 billion U.S. dollars. Recently the budget
has been expanded to accommodate the counterdrug operations, and currently has annual expenditures of $6.043 billion (2004).

According to the 's armed forces currently number about 300,000.

Mexico 's military is divided into two branches, the National Defense Secretariat (includes Army and Air Force) and the Navy Secretariat (includes Naval Air and Marines).

The Army makes up about three-fourths of the total military. Army soldiers are armed with license-made Heckler and Koch G3 Rifles , currently being replaced by the FX-05 “Xicoatl” mexican made assault rifle.

MISSION

The Mexican Army works around three preparedness missions, or ''plans'':

DN1: Preparation of the military forces to repel external aggressions. No military armed force can leave Mexican territory without a declaration of war, and approval of the Congress . The last time this was invoked was in 1942 , to send an expeditionary force to the Philippines , after war was declared against Germany and Japan , following the sinking of two Mexican ships by U-boats . In 1990 President Carlos Salinas De Gortari asked the permission of the Congress to send troops to the Gulf War , but it was refused, since there was no declaration of war against Iraq .

DN2: Preparation of the military forces to protect the internal security of the country. This would include police actions against Guerrilla Forces , Counterdrug Operations , and, originally, political control. Up to 1970 , the Mexican Army had been used as a repressive force to maintain the virtual Dictatorship of the single-party PRI government. The most controversial use of the military had been called "The dirty war" against communism in the 1960s , which included the 1968 Tlatelolco Massacre of students and unexpecting bystanders. After 1980 these types of operations had nearly completely ceased (see EZLN ).

DN3: Defense against natural disasters. The Army should always be ready to help the civil population in case of disaster. This include preventive measures. For example, between August and November, military forces are sent to Mexican Coastal Areas to aid the public in the event of hurricanes or floods. For the Mexican people, the DN3 plan is the most important operation of the Army. The Army provides food, shelter, medicine, and medical services to the people that need them. This also includes recontruction of roads and communication services. A point of controversy is why the Army did not apply the DN3 plan after the 1985 Mexico City Earthquake that left large areas of Mexico City in ruins. This was due mainly to political reasons, but demonstrates how the Mexican army is subject to civil powers.

CONSCRIPTION

The lottery

Each year, the Mexican military recruiters require all Mexican males that reached the age of 18 in the previous 12 months to appear at a designated military recruitment center in their local municipality. A lottery is held to determine randomly who will be assigned either Army service, Navy service, or be excused from service completely.

The lottery formerly took the form, for example, of all men in attendance standing at attention for hours while each man's name is called, during which a child pulled a ball out of a bag- the color of which will determine each conscriptee's fate. Nowadays the selection is made by a computer program, but the results are still being called as usual: White ball (Army service attendance), Black ball (no service attendance) or Blue ball (navy-marines service attendance).

A document called ''Cartilla del Servicio Militar Nacional'', or simply Cartilla, is produced at this event, where the result is recorded. This document is an important identification and its existence is almost always requested by private and public employers. However, this document has recently stopped to be a requirement for getting a passport and, thus, travelling internationally.

Career soldiers

While all Mexican males are required by law to give "military service" for a period of one year, those services are civil and require only a few hours on weekends and do not imply any military training, except drills. Most Mexicans, for example, that have been recruited into the military, have never touched a gun by the time their civil service is complete. The 1986 class of the SMN ''Servicio Militar Nacional'' (National Military Service) was the last one to be oriented for social purposes. The SMN was recently restructured and the conscripts are receiving a better glimpse of a true Military education. The 1987 class (presently serving) will be the first class in many years to receive actual firearm training. The members of the Army that remain in the military after their mandatory period of service are volunteers who chose the Army as their job.

LIMITATIONS

Similar to the United States Posse Comitatus Act , Article 129 of the 1917 Mexican Constitution dictates that ''"No military authority may, in time of peace, perform any functions other than those that are directly connected with military affairs."'', but the use of the Army to replace police temporarily in some cases of corruption has been hotly debated.

Similar to the Third Amendment To The United States Constitution , Article 26 of the 1917 Constitution Of Mexico , ''"No member of the army shall in time of peace be quartered in private dwellings without the consent of the owner, nor may he impose any obligation whatsoever. In time of war the military may demand lodging, equipment, provisions, and other assistance, in the manner laid down in the respective martial law."''

MILITARY LAW

Article 123 of the 1917 Mexican Constitution dictates that ''"Military and naval personnel and members of the public security corps, and personnel of the foreign service, shall be governed by their own laws."''

SECRECY

Politically, the army maintains a very low profile, while as recently as a few decades ago there were restrictions upon mentioning the Army or Army ranks in the media (TV, newspapers etc). Only in the last decade have the Mexican people became more aware of the activities of the Army.

ACTIVITIES OUTSIDE MEXICO

United Nations peacekeeping

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As of 2005 , intervention in UN peacekeeping operations is being discussed, but with the current political composition of the Congress, it is unlikely to be approved.

Disaster Relief

The Mexican army has travelled to mainly Central American countries to provide aid in disaster relief.

Hurricane Katrina relief

In September 2005 Mexican army convoys traveled to the U.S. to help in the Hurricane Katrina Relief Effort .

Mexican army convoys and a navy ship laden with food, supplies and specialists traveled to the United States including military specialists, doctors, nurses and engineers carrying water treatment plants, mobile kitchens, food and blankets.

The convoy represents the first Mexican military unit to operate on U.S. soil since 1846 , when Mexican troops briefly marched into Texas , which had separated from Mexico and joined the United States.

SEE ALSO