The General Administration of Customs (AGA) gave a course to 1,130 Mexican military personnel from December 9 to June 30, 2021, reported the Presidency of the Republic.

In order to eradicate corruption and limit the illicit trafficking of arms, ammunition, explosives, cash, drugs, hydrocarbons and increase revenue, the government of Mexico decided to put the Army and the Navy in command of the country’s customs and ports.

For what reason? The government gives as its first response that they are the best prepared institutions to defend sovereignty, national security and face their threats.

General Administration of Customs

The AGA is a federal government entity dependent on the Tax Administration Service (SAT, a decentralized body of the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit), whose main function is to facilitate, monitor and control the entry and exit of merchandise and passengers from the national territory, as well as the means in which they are transported.

With this, the General Administration of Customs ensures compliance with the provisions on foreign trade issued by the Ministry of Finance, as well as other secretariats of the Federal Executive with competence for it.

The President of Mexico announced that the surveillance and administration of land customs will be in charge of elements of the Secretariat of National Defense, for which the following actions were carried out:

From December 9 to June 30, 2021, the General Administration of Customs gave 1,130 military personnel (86 women and 1,044 men) the Foreign Trade Induction Course; and from July 12 to September 13, 2021, 524 more elements will be trained (114 women and 410 men).

This course is given in five interdisciplinary groups equivalent to 233 hours of training in merchandise and people clearance; procedures for the surveillance, control and inspection of means of transport and selection of objectives; tactics aimed at preventing the entry of contraband, drugs, weapons, cartridges and currency.

Between March 1 and July 16, 2021, military personnel were deployed as auxiliary to the Foreign Trade Officers in the following facilities:

• On March 1, 2021, 31 members of the Mexican Army were assigned to customs in Colombia, in Nuevo León and 212 in Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa and Matamoros, in Tamaulipas.
• On July 1, 2021, 537 elements were assigned to Miguel’s customs Alemán and Camargo, Tamaulipas; Piedras Negras and Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila; Ojinaga, Ciudad Juárez and Palomas, Chihuahua; Agua Prieta, Naco and Nogales, Sonora.
• Finally, on July 16, 2021, 283 personnel covered the customs of Sonoyta and San Luis Río Colorado, Sonora; Mexicali, Tecate and Tijuana, Baja California; Subteniente López, Quintana Roo and Ciudad Hidalgo, Chiapas.