Pubdate: Sun, 25 Aug 2002
Source: Oklahoman, The (OK)
Copyright: 2002 The Oklahoma Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.oklahoman.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/318
Author: Mark Stevenson, Associated Press Writer
MEXICAN ARMY FACES SCRUTINY IN NEW ROLE

MEXICO CITY -- Long in the background, the Mexican army finds itself under 
increasing scrutiny as it is ordered to take on police work, border 
patrols, anti-drug raids -- tasks that it has neither the training nor the 
desire to do. President Vicente Fox has pledged "unconditional support" to 
the military in asking it to fight crime, but he has also opened secret 
files that have revived questions about the army's past role in hundreds of 
deaths.

The combination has brought unusual and uncomfortable exposure to a 
military that has spent most of the past half century walled off from the 
scrutiny of politicians, reporters and the public.

"Politics is unfamiliar terrain for us," said Gen. Alvaro Vallarta, who is 
on leave from the army while serving as a congressman. "The army doesn't 
want to get into the political game."

Unusual for Latin America, Mexico's 240,000-strong military has largely 
kept out of politics since the 1940s.

"There has traditionally been a quid pro quo, that the civilians stay out 
of the military's internal affairs, and the military will subordinate 
itself to civilian authority," said Roderic Camp, a political science 
professor at California's Claremont McKenna College who studies the Mexican 
military.

Traditions, however, are eroding. Fox's July 2000 election was a watershed 
in a shifting Mexican political scene, the first change of a party in power 
in 71 years.

Fox has opened secret files and named a special prosecutor who will look at 
incidents involving the army, such as the 1968 massacre of about 300 
students during a mass protest at Mexico City's Tlatelolco square.
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