Mexico - Military Training
One of the key factors in the development of the professional armed forces in Mexico is the military education system. It is designed to underscore the importance of discipline, conformity to law, and obedience to higher authority. The objective is to instill in officers deference to civilian institutions and to discourage any notion of military interference with the functioning of the state. Instruction on political, social, and economic topics is relatively sketchy in school curricula, presumably to avoid heightening the officers' political consciousness. This limited education does not apply, however, to the most senior level, the National Defense College (Colegio de Defensa Nacional).
Career soldiers Mexican citizens who have chosen to be career soldiers, are signed for an initial three year contract, which, at the end of it, are encouraged to sign for another two year contract. If they choose to do so, this second term would become final, unless they apply mandatory exams and tests to become corporals, or apply in order to study in any of the available Military Specialist Technical Schools or for sergeant in the E.M.C.A. (Escuela Militar de Clases de las Armas.
Officer candidates for the three services are trained in military colleges; Mexico City for the Army, Guadalajara, Jalisco, for the Air Force, and Veracruz, Veracruz, for the Navy. Generally, officer candidates are from society's lower and middle classes, therefore a military commission is a means of upward social mobility for the poor, yet society respects military officers. The military colleges are not universities, yet provide significant technical training applicable to civil employment after military service. They emphasise military ethics (honour, duty, country), history, discipline, physical fitness, and the perpetuation of the military as a societal institution. The armed forces provide university-level education through the War College (Colegio de Guerra) in Mexico City, to which officers must attend and earn a Diplomado del Estado Mayor (DEM) degree to qualify for promotion to general officer or admiral rank.
The military's three service academies form the first tier of the professional education system. The army's Heroic Military College, located in a southern suburb of Mexico City, dates back to the 1830s and is the most prestigious of the three. Air force cadets attend the Heroic Military College for two years, followed by two years at the Air College in Guadalajara. The Heroic Naval Military School for naval cadets is in Veracruz. In 1991 there were 245 openings at the Heroic Military College for entering cadets although the excellent modern facilities completed in 1976 can accommodate many more. Entrants range from fifteen to nineteen years old, although most are in the sixteen-to-eighteen age-group. The training is physically demanding and rigorous. Students are deliberately left with little free time. Cadets who complete the four years of training are considered to have achieved the equivalent of a preparatory school education.
Graduates of the four-year army curriculum attain the equivalent rank of second lieutenant and usually become platoon or section commanders, spending three years with tactical units. Young officers then may be designated to attend any of the applied schools for advanced training in infantry, artillery, engineering, support services, or cavalry. Graduates of the Air College who select a flight or ground support orientation in their course work receive the rank of second lieutenant as pilots, general specialists, or specialists in maintenance and supply. Cadets completing studies at the Heroic Naval Military School are commissioned as ensigns prior to service with the naval surface fleet or in naval aviation or the marine infantry. The navy also maintains an aviation school at the Benito Juarez International Airport in Mexico City.
If favorably rated, an army officer may be promoted to first lieutenant after two years and remains at that rank for a minimum of three years. The officer can resign his commission after five years or, after passing a competitive examination and being favorably evaluated, may be placed on a promotion list for second captain in order of his test score. Similar requirements must be met for advancement through the rank of lieutenant colonel.
The minimum service time is eight years to reach first captain, eleven years to reach major, and fourteen years to reach lieutenant colonel. The rate of promotion is fairly predictable. The Senate, which must approve promotions to the rank of colonel and above, generally resists advancing officers who have not served a normal time in grade. First and second captains who can meet admission standards may be admitted to the Superior War College or, in the case of naval officers, the Center of Superior Naval Studies. The Superior War College offers a three-year program for army officers and a two-year program for the air force. The equivalent naval course is three years. Course work emphasizes preparation for command and staff positions, including the study of administration, strategy and tactics, war gaming, and logistics, as well as more general subjects, such as military history, international law, and foreign languages. On completion of the course, officers are considered to have military training roughly comparable to that of the United States Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
Conditions for acceptance to the Superior War College are strict, as is the course work. Only about half of the entrants complete the full three years, and only 7 percent of the officer corps are graduates of the college. Those completing the course successfully receive the degree of Licenciate in Military Administration and the title of General Staff Graduate, which is used with one's military rank and commands some prestige. Graduates also receive a stipend of between 10 and 25 percent of their salary during the remainder of their active duty.
The National Defense College, created in 1981, is considered the culmination of professional military education. Entrance is offered to a select group of senior army colonels and generals and their counterparts in the air force and navy. The one-year program includes advanced training in national security policy formulation, resource management, international relations, and economics. Each officer is required to write a thesis involving field research on a topic involving national security, politics, or social problems. The majority of the professors at the college are civilians. Although graduation from the college does not bring immediate promotion, most of the generals reaching the highest positions in the military hierarchy are alumni of the college.
A number of other service institutions, separate from the officer training schools and the superior schools, fall under the general categories of applications schools, specialization schools, and schools offering basic NCO training and NCO technical courses. These institutions include the Military School of Medicine, the Military School of Dentistry, a group of schools of nursing and other medical specialties, military schools of engineering and communications, the Military Application School of Infantry and Artillery, the Military Application School of Cavalry, and a one-year school of instruction in leadership for second and first sergeants.
Mexican officers also attend military schools in other countries of Latin America, as well as in France, Britain, Italy, and Germany. Although Mexico sends proportionately fewer officers to military schools in the United States than some Latin American countries, it uses United States training materials, and United States military doctrine is influential.
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