Secretariat of National Defense

SEDENA

Mexico's Secretariat of National Defense (Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional, Sedena) is the government department responsible for managing Mexico's Army and Air Forces. Its head is the Secretary of National Defense who, like the co-equal Secretary of the Navy, reports directly to the President.^[1] Before 1937, the position was called the Secretary of War and Navy (Secretaría de Guerra y Marina). The agency has its headquarters in Lomas de Sotelo, Miguel Hidalgo, Mexico City.^[2]

Functions

Under the Federal Organic Law of Public Administration (Ley Orgánica de la Administración Pública Federal), the Secretary has the following duties:

• Organize, administer and prepare the Army and the Air Force.
• Organize and prepare the National Military Service.
• Management of the Army, Air Force, National Guard and armed contingents which don't belong to state's national guard.
• Plan, direct and handle mobilization of the country in the event of war; formulating and executing, in due case, plans and orders necessary to the country defense, as well as directing and advising civil defense.
• Construct and prepare the forts and all kind of military buildings for Army and Air Force use, as well as administration of barracks, hospitals and other military buildings.
• Administer military justice.
• Acquire and build armaments, ammunition, and all kinds of materials and elements for the use of Army and Air Force.
• Grant permission for an expedition force to enter another country or to allow another country to send their forces to Mexico.

• Manage the issuing of licenses to bear firearms with the aim of preventing the use of arms expressly banned in law and also those types of arms restricted by the state for the exclusive use of the Army, Navy and National Guard, with the exception of what is established by the 13th section of Article 30 of the Constitution, as well as the supervision and issuing of permits for the sale, transport and storage of firearms, chemical weapons, explosives and strategic weapons.

Organization

The following offices report to the Secretary:

• Assistant Secretary of National Defense (Subsecretaría de la Defensa Nacional)
• Chief of Staff of National Defense (Estado Mayor de la Defensa Nacional)
• Military Law Bodies (Organos del Fuero de Guerra)

List of Secretaries of National Defense

• Government of Venustiano Carranza (1917–1920)
  • (1917–1918): Jesús Agustín Castro
  • (1918–1920): Juan José Ríos
  • (1920): Francisco L. Urquizo

• Government of Adolfo de la Huerta (1920)
  • (1920): Plutarco Elías Calles

• Government of Álvaro Obregón (1920–1924)
  • (1920): Benjamín Hill
  • (1920–1922): Enrique Estrada
  • (1922–1924): Francisco R. Serrano

• Government of Plutarco Elías Calles (1924–1928)
  • (1924–1928): Joaquín Amaro

• Government of Emilio Portes Gil (1928–1930)
  • (1928–1930): Joaquín Amaro

• Government of Pascual Ortiz Rubio (1930–1932)
  • (1930–1931): Joaquín Amaro
  • (1931–1932): Plutarco Elías Calles
  • (1932): Abelardo L. Rodríguez

• Government of Abelardo L. Rodríguez (1932–1934)
  • (1932–1933): Pablo Quiroga
  • (1933): Lázaro Cárdenas del Río
  • (1933–1934): Pablo Quiroga

• Government of Lázaro Cárdenas del Río (1934–1940)
  • (1934–1935): Pablo Quiroga
  • (1935–1936): Andrés Figueroa
  • (1936–1939): Manuel Ávila Camacho
  • (1939–1940): Jesús Agustín Castro

• Government of Manuel Ávila Camacho (1940–1946)
  • (1940–1942): Pablo Macías Valenzuela
  • (1942–1945): Lázaro Cárdenas del Río
  • (1945–1946): Francisco L. Urquizo

• Government of Miguel Alemán (1946–1952)
  • (1946–1952): Gilberto R. Limón

• Gobierno de Adolfo Ruiz Cortines (1952–1958)
  • (1952–1958): Matías Ramos

• Government of Adolfo López Mateos (1958–1964)
  • (1958–1964): Agustín Olachea

• Government of Gustavo Díaz Ordaz (1964–1970)
  • (1964–1970): Marcelino García Barragán

• Government of Luis Echeverría (1970–1976)
  • (1970–1976): Hermenegildo Cuenca Díaz

• Government of José López Portillo (1976–1982)
  • (1976–1982): Félix Galván López

• Government of Miguel de la Madrid (1982–1988)
  • (1982–1988): Juan Arévalo Gardoqui

• Government of Carlos Salinas de Gortari (1988–1994)
  • (1988–1994): Antonio Riviello Bazán

• Government of Ernesto Zedillo (1994–2000)
  • (1994–2000): Enrique Cervantes Aguirre

• Government of Vicente Fox (2000–2006)
  • (2000–2006): Gerardo Clemente Ricardo Vega García

• Government of Felipe Calderón (2006–2012)
  • (2006–present) : Guillermo Galván Galván

See also

	Mexico portal
	Military history portal

• Military of Mexico

References

1. ^ Mexico's Federal Organic Law of Public AdministrationLey Orgánica de la Administración Pública Federal, Article 29
2. ^ "Home." Secretariat of National Defense. Retrieved on February 15, 2011. "Blvd. Manuel Ávila Camacho S/N. Esq. Av. Ind. Mil., Col. Lomas de Sotelo; Deleg. Miguel Hidalgo, D.F. C.P. 11640."

External links

• Official site of the Secretariat of National Defense (Spanish)
• Official site of the Secretariat of National Defense, English version
• Citizens' Portal, Official Site of the Mexican Government (Spanish)
• Basic Law of Federal Public Administration (Spanish)

Coordinates: 19°26′24″N 99°12′58″W / 19.440°N 99.216°W / 19.440; -99.216