Author: George W. Grayson
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1304056961
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 103
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As if combating vicious narco-syndicates were not a sufficiently formidable challenge, the Mexican government has assigned such additional roles to the Army and Navy as overseeing customs agents, serving as state and municipal security chiefs, taking charge of prisons, protecting airports, safeguarding migrants, functioning as firefighters, preventing drug trafficking around schools, establishing recreational programs for children, and standing guard 24-hours a day over boxes of ballots cast in recent elections. This expansion of duties has sparked the accusation that Mexico is being "militarized." A creative outreach program includes parades and other ceremonial extravaganzas, pilots encourage adults and children to hop into the seat of a helicopter; other wide-eyed youngsters grasp the controls of anti-aircraft weapons; admiring onlookers are invited to shake hands and have photos taken with nationally prominent military athletes; in Veracruz and other ports, residents are given tours of ships...
Author: George W. Grayson
Publisher: Army War College Strategic Studies Institute
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 104
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In the absence of honest, professional civilian law-enforcement agencies, President Felipe Calderón assigned the military the lead role in his nation's version of the "War on Drugs" that he launched in 2006. While the armed forces have spearheaded the capture and/or death of several dozen cartel capos, the conflict has taken its toll on the organizations in terms of deaths, corruption, desertions, and charges by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) of hundreds of human rights violations. The nation's Supreme Court has taken the first step in requiring that officers and enlistees accused of crimes against civilians stand trial in civil courts rather than hermetic military tribunals. As if combating vicious narco-syndicates were not a sufficiently formidable challenge, the government has assigned such additional roles to the Army and Navy as overseeing customs agents, serving as state and municipal security chiefs, taking charge of prisons, protecting airports, safeguarding migrants, functioning as firefighters, preventing drug trafficking around schools, establishing recreational programs for children, and standing guard 24-hours a day over boxes of ballots cast in recent elections. Meanwhile, because of their discipline, training, and skill with firearms, security firms are snapping up men and women who have retired from active duty. The sharp expansion of the armed forces' duties has sparked the accusation that Mexico is being "militarized." Contributing to this assertion is the Defense Ministry's robust, expensive public relations campaign both to offset criticism of civilians killed in what the Pentagon would label "collateral damage" and to increase contacts between average citizens and military personnel, who often constituted a separate caste. The author examines the ever wider involvement of the armed forces in Mexican life by addressing the question: "Is Mexican society being 'militarized'?"If the answer is "yes," what will be the probable impact on relations between the United States and its southern neighbor?
Author: George W. Grayson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Author: Daniel Helwig
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3656106134
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 33
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Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2012 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Region: Middle- and South America, grade: 1,0, University of Economics, Prague, language: English, abstract: Since president Felipe Calderón started his policy of "mano dura" against the drug cartels in 2006, Mexico has seen unprecedented internal violence - with the total number of casualties having exceeded 45.000 in 2011. Assuming that the Mexican conflict is a war, subsequent questions can be asked with respect to a classic of political theory. Alexis de Tocqueville observed the natural tendency of central governments to reach out for more power in times of war. He further specified this statement by claiming that particularly the executive branch gains power in such situations. A democratic nation would be subject to this behavior, because it perceives the central executive as "the only power which appears to be intrinsically sufficiently strong, enlightened, and secure, to protect [it] from anarchy." Here, the Mexican case provides the analyst with further particularities. Not only follows the country's executive the logic of presidential system, but also is it still on the democratic recovery from a long-term authoritarian one-party-rule. This paper briefly examines the drug war's impact on the Mexican constitutional reality and thus aims at answering the question: What effect does the conflict have on the power endowment of the Mexican executive? In order to validate the hypothesis, that the president's power is gradually strengthened, the author chose a rather linear approach. After first introducing key data about the Mexican drug war, the institutional legacies of more than 70 years of one-party-rule are discussed. With the president's power having been on decline since a process of democratization gathered pace in 2000, various aspects of today's situation are understandable only by scrutinizing the consequences of previous "arrangements"
Author: George W. Grayson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
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Author: Jeffrey S. Cole
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 112
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Mexican society is becoming militarized due to the increased use of the Mexican military in domestic affairs. This militarization is the result of three factors: the internal focus of the military, the drug war, and corruption. The internal focus of the Mexican military is based on doctrine. Mexico's drug war began in 1986 when U.S. President Reagan convinced their government that the trafficking of drugs constituted a National security threat. Corruption is pervasive in Mexico due to the combination of seven decades of authoritarian rule by the hegemonic Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the associated effects from transnational drug trafficking. The army represents the last publicly respected institution in Mexico. During the past three years, almost the entire law enforcement apparatus to combat drug trafficking has been replaced with military soldiers and numerous key political appointees and governmental positions have been filled with Mexican generals and colonels. There are few national interests more profoundly consequential to the United States than the political stability and general welfare of Mexico. The militarization and changing civil military relations in Mexico is an important aspect in U.S. Mexico relations and must be considered impossible policy changes.
Author: Inigo Guevara Moyano
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781304099396
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Since President Felipe Calderon took office in December 2006, Mexico has embarked upon the implementation of a culture of law and security that has triggered a war with organized crime. This war has involved all sectors of society and has activated a series of renovations in its armed forces, which to date remain the most trusted institutions in Mexican society. This groundbreaking Letort Paper is an important contribution to an understanding of the structure, culture, motivators, and challenges of the Mexican military in the 21st century. Mr. Iñigo Guevara Moyano, a Mexican researcher and writer, provides a clear picture of doctrinal and structural transformations, adaptations, and improvement that the Mexican armed forces have endured over the past 5 years. Mr. Moyano focuses on how the counternarcotic role has impacted its organization, deployments, and operations, and how it has generated new doctrinal and equipment requirements.
Author: Inigo Moyano
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 9781478113218
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 50
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Book Description
Since President Felipe Calderon took office in December 2006, Mexico has embarked upon the implementation of a culture of law and security that has triggered a war with organized crime. This war has involved all sectors of society and has activated a series of renovations in its armed forces, which to date remain the most trusted institutions in Mexican society. This groundbreaking Letort Paper is an important contribution to an understanding of the structure, culture, motivators, and challenges of the Mexican military in the 21st century. Mr. Iñigo Guevara Moyano, a Mexican researcher and writer, provides a clear picture of doctrinal and structural transformations, adaptations, and improvement that the Mexican armed forces have endured over the past 5 years. Mr. Moyano focuses on how the counternarcotic role has impacted its organization, deployments, and operations, and how it has generated new doctrinal and equipment requirements. The paper also addresses key areas of national and international concern such as respect for human rights and and the military justice system. Given Mexico's importance to the United States as its neighbor, ally, and third largest trading partner, understanding the transformation that its armed forces are enduring to assist in the implementation of a culture of law should be of prime concern to all actors-government, private sector, and academia-involved in the decisionmaking process.
Author: Inigo Guevara Moyano
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781466343214
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 50
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Mexico's armed forces are in the midst of a transformation to better perform in an ongoing war against organized crime. Their role and visibility have escalated considerably since President Felipe Calderon assumed office in December of 2006. Although the fight against organized crime is clearly a law enforcement matter, the absence of effective and accountable police forces has meant that the Army, Navy, and Air Force have been used as supplementary forces to defend the civilian population and enforce the rule of law. While the federal government has striven to stand up a capable police force in order to relieve and eventually replace the military, that possibility is still distant. Five years into the Calderon administration, the armed forces continue to be the main implementers of the National Security policy, aimed at employing the use of force to disrupt the operational capacity of organized crime. Their strong institutional tradition, professionalism, submission to political control, and history of interaction with the population mainly through disaster relief efforts have made them the most trusted institution in Mexican society. Mexico's armed forces have long been used as an instrument of the state to implement all kinds of public policies at the national level, from emergency vaccinations, to post-earthquake rescue, to reforestation campaigns. They have been at the forefront of disaster relief operations in reaction to the calamities of nature, within and beyond their borders, with humanitarian assistance deployments to Indonesia, the United States, Haiti, and Central America among the most recent. viii The Mexican armed forces are quite unique, as they are divided into two separate cabinet level ministries: the Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional (the Secretary of National Defense or SEDENA), which encompasses the Army and Air Force, and the Secretaría de Marina (the Secretary of the Navy or SEMAR), which comprises the Navy. The level of engagement with society and the results obtained from this division in military power confirms the utility of their independence. Their use as the state's last line of defense has led to severe criticism from opinion leaders, opposition forces, international analysts, and human rights organizations. Their level of commitment remains unaltered and they have undertaken a number of significant transformations to better address their continued roles as the guardians of the State and protectors of the population.
Author: Hal Brands
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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