Militarization Nation (Part I): How Mexico's Military Gained So Much Power
Welcome back to Next Sexenio. This week, I wanted to take a step back and discuss something I’ve seen in the press quite a bit over the last two weeks, but to which I’ll add my two cents: The militarization of Mexico.
This topic has come up quite a bit in recent weeks because, in late July, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador announced that the Navy would take control of the Mexico City International Airport (AICM)—Latin America’s busiest. The Navy took control of security operations at the airport over a year ago, but from now on, it will handle all tasks of running the airport—and who knows what else. Then in the day between writing and editing this, the president announced that the military would take control of Mexico’s immigration institute.
Just a note: There’s far too much to be said on this topic, so I’ve split this into two posts that will go back to back.
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— Jonathan
Mexico’s military expands reach
It might seem odd for a brand of Mexico’s military to take on a function that is normally civilian-operated elsewhere in the world. But, in President Lopez Obrador’s Mexico, the military’s reach has slowly expanded far beyond protecting the country, carrying out humanitarian operations, and combatting security threats.
This was not the norm. It was not even that long ago that Mexico’s military didn’t have to worry about managing public security. The military was only brought in to combat domestic security threats in 2006 under Felipe Calderon (2006-2012). Before then, the role of the military was far more limited. In fact, during Vicente Fox’s term as president (2000-2006), the military was largely overlooked. It served humanitarian functions and had historical importance, but Mexico was a country without much of a military. To that extent, I think back to a quote by Fox’s Interior Minister Jorge Castaneda:
We have an army in Mexico, the purpose of which is not to be a fighting army, but to participate in rescue efforts… Mexico’s political system has, since the 1920s, deliberately ensured that the army is useless... We want an army that is corrupt, poorly trained, poorly equipped, and totally useless. Why? Because those armies don’t overthrow their governments.1
That view of the military progressively changed throughout the years since Calderon began his “War on Drugs” with the backing of the US government. Slowly, the military—Army and Navy—began to take on new responsibilities, but it truly snowballed under President Lopez Obrador.
I write much of these posts from memory, but even relying on that, there is quite an extensive list of government functions the military now controls. To keep it somewhat brief, those areas include:
The AICM (and the new Felipe Ángeles International Airport outside Mexico City)
Various infrastructure projects (most notably the Felipe Ángeles International Airport and Mayan Tren)
Management of ports (including customs and immigration)
Constructing over 2,500 branches of a state-owned bank
Building hotels… the list goes on… and on… and on...
Moreover, in recent years, the Army took control of the National Guard, a civilian security force created by President Lopez Obrador in 2018 but one which he consistently tried to make an independent branch of the military—despite being barred from doing so by the constitution and international commitments.
While the total military force in Mexico at the start of the century amounted to some 50,000 members, that number has increased to more than 350,000. At the same time, the military’s budget has increased dramatically. Mexico once spent about half a percent of its GDP on its military—far less than the average for Latin America. It’s far harder to figure out how much funding the military has. According to the World Bank, the Mexican military’s funding now accounts for 0.7% of GDP, but that figure is certainly not its entirety given that it receives funds for completing projects, has access to a trust that has increased in size by about 2,300% since 2018, and has consistently operated above budget since 2018.
It’s hard to pin down just how many resources the military has access to. If you need to sum it up, the answer is a lot.
How did we get here?
A book could be written on the last five years of Mexico’s military and how it got to be as large as it was. A trilogy could easily be written on the period from 2006 to today. The answer to how did we get here? is that Mexico has rather pressing security concerns. That’s news to no one. As noted above, the slow expansion of the military began with its inclusion in improving the country’s security environment. Over time, more of the military became engaged in this function, which grew larger as more resources were needed to combat violence in the country.
However, it was not until President Lopez Obrador took office that the military's role took off. One could point to the formation of the National Guard as the start of the trend of the militarization of everything in Mexico, but the trend started with President Lopez Obrador himself and his penchant for finding loopholes to political and legal challenges—one that he has demonstrated since at least the early 2000s when he was mayor of Mexico City.
President Lopez Obrador learned something very important about the military: They are among the—if not the—most effective parts of Mexico’s bureaucracy. If work needs to be done on time, the military has generally demonstrated an ability to meet deadlines.
However, perhaps more importantly, the president learned the power of national security. Military-led projects were easier to force through, with courts offering deference to the president on national security matters. This approach did not always work, but in many cases it did. Perhaps more importantly, those same national security arguments shroud much of the spending on these projects in secrecy. Funds can easily be moved from project to project with few questions asked—if that sounds ripe for corruption, it’s fair to say you’d be right.
[While an immensely important issue, I am not going to dwell here on the concerns about corruption—of which there are rightfully many, ranging from the fact that the military now controls customs, which account for about 15% of Mexico’s total tax revenues, to the opacity in military spending, to the various accusations in which military leaders are embroiled. That’s a conversation for another day.]
Ultimately, the president found great utility in having a military that offered so many benefits: timely, opaque, typically effective, and so on. They won his trust and, over time, more responsibilities.