The News
August 28, 2001
By Reed Lindsay

MEXICO CITY - Defense Secretary General Ricardo Vega Garcia on Monday spoke before members of the lower house National Defense Committee, becoming the first defense secretary in the nation's history to appear before a committee at Congress.

"This is a historic event for the nation," said National Action Party (PAN) Deputy Jesus de Silva Ruiz, a secretary on the committee. "It represents the new relationship between the different powers."

Vega responded to questions about the Army's anti-narcotics operations, its reaction to the Tropical Storm Chantal emergency and its role in battling the nation's guerrilla groups.

The appearance marks the more assertive role Congress has assumed over the last several years, as the former ruling lost its grip, which culminated with the election of President Vicente Fox after 71 years of one party rule. In contrast to most Latin American nations, which have had histories rife with coups and military dictatorships, Mexico's armed forces have stayed clear of the political arena, taking orders from the nation's civilian governments. But under the skewed balance of powers that characterized the reign of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the military answered directly to the president, leaving Congress and the Mexican public in the dark about its activities and its budget.

In the past, members of the congressional defense committees have had to visit the defense secretary in his office.

Further, the defense secretary and Naval director are the only Cabinet members who have not appeared before Congress each year after the president's State of the Nation Address.

"We have an armed forces that isn't used to accounting for its actions before the legislative branch," said Jorge Luis Sierra, co-author of a book detailing the history of the military in Mexico. "Up to now, Congress's participation in determining military policy has been practically nil." PRI Deputy Jose Alvaro Vallarta, an active army general and member of the National Defense Committee, played down the importance of Vega's appearance, saying Monday's meeting was the same as always except for its location. "There has always been communication between Congress and the Defense Secretariat," said Vallarta.

But the appearance could have repercussions far beyond the relationship between the Defense Secretariat and defense committees, opening the doors to more proactive congressional involvement in supervising the army and determining military policy.

Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) Senator Leticia Burgos called Vega's visit to San Lazaro "unprecedented."

Burgos said the Senate's human rights committee, of which she is a secretary, plans on calling Vega to appear before it in the following months to explain forced disappearances in the 1970s and recent human rights abuses in Chiapas.