Since December 2006, when Felipe Calderon assumed the office of the President, Mexico has embarked upon the implementation of a culture of law and security that has triggered a war with organized crime involving all sectors of society. This implementation has activated a series of renovations in its armed forces, which remain the most trusted institutions in Mexican society.This Letort Paper contributes to an understanding of the structure, culture, motivators, and challenges of the Mexican military in the 21st century and provides a clear picture of doctrinal and structural transformations, adaptations, and improvement that the Mexican armed forces have endured over the past 5 years. This Paper focuses on how the counternarcotic role has impacted its organization, deployments, and operations, and how it has generated new doctrinal and equipment requirements, and 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 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.

This single volume reference resource offers students, scholars, and general readers alike an in-depth background on Mexico, from the complexity of its pre-Columbian civilizations to its social and political development in the context of Western civilization. How did modern Mexico become a nation of multicultural diversity and rich indigenous traditions? What key roles do Mexico's non-Western, pre-Columbian indigenous heritage and subsequent development as a major center in the Spanish colonial empire play the country's identity today? How is Mexico today both Western and non-Western, part Native American and part European, simultaneously traditional and modern? Modern Mexico is a thematic encyclopedia that broadly covers the nation's history, both ancient and modern; its government, politics, and economics; as well as its culture, religion traditions, philosophy, arts, and social structures. Additional topics include industry, labor, social classes and ethnicity, women, education, language, food, leisure and sport, and popular culture. Sidebars, images, and a Day in the Life feature round out the coverage in this accessible, engaging volume. Readers will come to understand how Mexico and the Mexican people today are the result of the processes of transculturation, globalization, and civilizational contact.

Tracing the U.S. government's efforts to shape the armed forces of Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean from 2000 to 2014, this narrative concentrates on the Army but also discusses Air Force and naval forces, including the Marines and the Coast Guard. Police forces in those regions are also covered. Mexico's ongoing struggle with drug cartels is discussed extensively. Venezuela and Cuba receive considerable attention. This study is the first to examine in detail the armed forces of countries such as the Dominican Republic and Jamaica. Sections on Haiti and Panama, countries supposedly without armies, reveal the decisive role the U.S. has played in determining their military policies. The text weaves the histories of these armed forces into the broader context of the politics, economics and international relations in the region. A clear and brief introduction to the relations of Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean with the United States is provided.

Although there is no perfectly analogous case to Mexico's current security situation, policymakers stand to benefit from historical lessons and efforts correlated with improvement in countries facing challenges related to violence and corruption.

Forty years after Richard Nixon declared a “War on Drugs,” this sobering book offers views of the “narco wars” from scholars on both sides of the US-Mexico border. With evidence newly obtained through freedom-of-information inquiries in Mexico, it proposes practical solutions to a seemingly intractable crisis.

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...