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Large Units [Grandes Unidades]

The Large Units [Grandes Unidades] are joint organic of troops of the diverse arms and services, under the control of a General Staff. These formation forces are classified as elementary large formations [grandes unidades elementales] and superior large formations [grandes unidades superiores]. As for higher echelon units that are present in other armies, such as that of Spain, such as the "group", "unit of brigade" and "formation force of brigade", they are concepts that do not exist in the Mexican Army.

Elementary large formations are organization with a permanent existence; subject to organic list, they have a headquarters group for a certain number of battle elements diverse arms and support to diverse services. The Elementary Large Formation are the Independent Brigades and the Divisions; in both cases they receive the denomination of the weapon that is the preponderant combatant nucleus, which is the reason why they can be called of Infantry, of Cavalry, Armored, of Aerotroops Aircraft, or of any type that acts by maneuver. But it does not mean that these elementary large formation must be considered like units of the combatant weapon or body that give the name them, since they are in any case combined units of various weapons.

• Brigada Independiente [Independent Brigade] is an elementary large formation that is under a headquarters, with groups of a variable number of battalions (or units of the same level), like maneuvering force; it arranges besides an artillery battalion, troops of engineers and the diverse services in amount and type necessary to satisfy the needs with support with organic elements and that is susceptible to receive reinforcement to increase its capacities battle.

• División [Division]. It is the elementary large formation par excellence. It is constituted with a headquarters and division brigades, plus the support units of fire, and units on watch necessary to guarantee the exigencies of the life and fight of formation forces. [This is a doctrinal unit that does not exist in the Mexican Army]

Superior large formations [grandes unidades superiores] have, under a common headquarters, a group of two or more elementary large formations or two or more formations of lower level. Formation force Superiors does not respond to defined organic list and they are created for war. They are denominated:

• Cuerpo de Ejército [Army Corps] is Superior force Formation that groups two or more Divisions, of the same or different type; also Army Corps is denominated to integrate under a headquarters two or more equal or diverse Independent Brigades to each other; there can also be an Army Corps that groups Divisions and Independent brigades and integrates undivided elements consisting of service and support units battle. The 1er. Cuerpo del Ejército (ICE) was the first effort towards a reorganization of the Army in seven Corps that would replace the existing zone system, but no further Corps have been formed.

  The First Corps Special Forces [Primer Cuerpo de Fuerzas Especiales] are the Special Forces units associated with the First Army Corps, formations which are also termed First Special Forces Corps [Primer Cuerpo de Fuerzas Especiales], though this later formulation does not imply this existence of a Corps of special forces. These units have no territorial responsibility, and have the flexibility to operate anywhere in the country, but their roles and missions are the same as those of the units assigned in the territorial control.

  The word "Cuerpo" is ambiguous, properly translated both as "Corps" and as "brigade", "department", "force", or "body". As of 1993 the Special Corps of the Army and Air Force were special branches established by the Organic Law (of the Mexican Congress). They were specially trained and equipped forces with specific missions. Personnel assigned to the Presidential Guard, Airborne, Military Police, and Military Music Corps composed the Special Corps. While the Special Forces Corps [Cuerpo de Fuerzas Especiales], the Corps of Military Police [Cuerpo de la Policía Militar] and the Corps of Presidential Guards [ Cuerpo de Guardias Presidenciales] are styled as Corps, in the sense of the US Army Corps of Engineers, rather than the XVIII Airborne Corps - they are in fact by all reports Brigade sized units, and not echelons equivalent to an Army Corps. The Library of Congress - Federal Research Division Country Profile: Mexico, July 2008 reports that "The principal units of the Mexican army are nine infantry brigades and a number of independent regiments and infantry battalions. The main maneuver elements of the army are organized in three corps, each consisting of three infantry brigades, all based in and around the Federal District."

• Ejército en operaciones [Field Army, lit. "Army in operations"] consists of two or more Army Corps. [This is a doctrinal unit that does not exist in the Mexican Army]

• Grupo de Ejércitos [Army Group] consists of two or more Field Armies. [This is a doctrinal unit that does not exist in the Mexican Army]

In Chiapas, since 2002, the Center for Political Analysis and Social and Economic Research AC (CAPISE), involved the development of a detailed investigation to allows more clarity about who is Mexican Federal Army, how it is composed, how it is distributed, what is the military logic against indigenous peoples, where possession, military identity of each unit, what is its tactical military deployment, what it does, how it does among others. During the investigation, the CAPISE found the presence of military camps denominated Groups [Agrupamientos]. In order to understand the logic and the function that these Units have in indigenous territory, information through manuals of the SEDENA looked for and through SISI [Sistema de Solicitudes de Información - the Mexican counterpart to FOIA].

The "Campaign Operations Manual" [Manual de Operaciones en Campaña] defines grouping. According to the manual, clusters are confined within Circumstantial Organizations. Although these organisms outside the large and small units, are also part of the structure of the Organic Army and have the flexibility to have features of an Independent Brigade [Brigada Independiente] or of a Division [División] in quantitative and qualitative components. In addition to small and large units, the military organizational considers various kinds of Circumstantial Agencies [Organismos Circunstanciales] of variable constitution in line with circumstances and that are created and operate in each case for a particular purpose. These include: Eschelon [Escalón] or nuclei fractions to divide a force to operate and function in distributed successively in depth in the deployment; Detachment [Destacamento] belonging to a unit fraction; Grouping [Agrupamiento], an organization set up from several units available, under a joint command to fulfill a specific purpose, which may be of variable size and potential, being able sometimes to take the features of Great Unity Elementary [Gran Unidad Elemental] in the amount and quality of forces in the field. Including two or more units of armed forces are called Joined Groups [Agrupamientos Conjuntos]. According to the Manual of Field Operations, Superior Formation Forces [Grandes Unidades Superiores] are created under the 1er Army Corps. These were created for the war in Chiapas, and do not comprise of the organic list and are composed by elements.