US Intervention in Mexican Defense Appointment Part of a Long Pattern Catherine Cheney - World Politics Review
go to original February 7, 2013

Prior to the December inauguration of Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, the United States intervened to halt the rise of Gen. Moises Garcia Ochoa, who was expected to become Mexico’s next minister of defense, according to reporting by the New York Times.

U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Anthony Wayne met with Pena Nieto’s senior aides to express American concerns over the possible promotion of the general, including suspicions that he had ties to drug traffickers.

“This is not unprecedented, and it doesn’t just apply to Mexico. The United States, over the decades, has done this with a number of Latin American governments,” said Ted Galen Carpenter, senior fellow for defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute.

Carpenter said the U.S. has effectively vetoed political appointments elsewhere in Latin America as well, including in Colombia and Peru. He detailed these examples in his book “Bad Neighbor Policy: Washington’s Futile War on Drugs in Latin America.”

Mexico is of particular interest given its shared border with the U.S., ongoing security concerns and its extensive ties with the U.S. The job of Mexican defense minister ultimately went to Gen. Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda. Ochoa, reputed to be the original favorite, was meanwhile dispatched to a dangerous assignment in the Mexican border state of Coahuila.

Yet Latin America political expert George W. Grayson, a professor at William & Mary, stressed that U.S. concerns about Ochoa were not necessarily unfounded. “Ochoa had been head of acquisitions in the last administration, and that really is a honey pot for corruption, and the rumors had been rife with regard to his, shall we say, shadowy behavior,” he said.

The U.S. had an interest in preventing someone with “questionable” character from becoming Mexico’s defense secretary, Grayson said, especially as Mexico revamps its law enforcement structure. Ochoa has been dubbed “Mr. Ten Percent” by American officials because of his alleged skimming from defense contracts. The U.S., Grayson added, needs to stay vigilant about the Mexican military’s “culture of corruption.”  

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