AMLO's Legacy Marks The Succession At Sedena

 "CHAR" for Borderland Beat

This article was translated and reposted from PROCESO

Among the 29 Major Generals from which the new Secretary of National Defense may emerge, two profiles sound in military circles and outside of them: one is General Sandoval's right-hand man and the other is related to the creation of the National Guard.

MEXICO CITY (Proceso) - In view of the upcoming announcement of the cabinet of the virtual president-elect, Claudia Sheinbaum, in the Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena) they are opting for two profiles in terms of the Army's security obligations and its incursion into the new activities assigned to them by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

Among the 29 Major Generals from which the next Army chief may emerge, two names have been mentioned the most inside and outside military circles; both belonging to the current military leadership.

One is the Undersecretary of National Defense, General Gabriel García Rincón; the other is the Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of National Defense, General Ricardo Trevilla Trejo.

Both visionaries, both with General Staff diplomas, have operational and administrative experience, but among those who favor the Undersecretary of National Defense, they assure that he is the "man of trust" of the current Secretary, General Luis Cresencio Sandoval, who according to Army tradition, must leave office on September 30, once the government is over.

Sandoval would leave the Army High Command five months before his 65th birthday, when the military retire.  

General García Rincón is also the president of the Board of Directors of the Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA), one of the new spaces of control in the public administration that López Obrador granted to the military.

Aged 63 and a member of the Infantry, the undersecretary has operational experience as commander of the Special Forces Air Mobile Group (GAFE) in the Seventh Military Region in Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas, commander of the GAFE of the High Command in Mexico City, commander of the 49th Infantry Battalion in La Paz, Baja California Sur, commander of the 11th Infantry Battalion in Temamatla, State of Mexico, and commander of the Second Military Zone in Tijuana and the 34th Military Zone in Chetumal, Quintana Roo. Infantry Battalion in Temamatla, State of Mexico, and commander of the Second Military Zone in Tijuana and the 34th Military Zone in Chetumal, Quintana Roo.

In addition to his training at the Escuela Superior de Guerra and the Colegio de la Defensa Nacional, he has taken courses in Panama (Pana-Jungla Teribe) and in the United States: infantry at Fort Benning, the Inter-American Defense College, the Armed Forces College and the Intelligence College.

In administrative positions, he has been Inspector and General Comptroller of the Army and Air Force and Senior Officer of Sedena.

Creator of the NG

General Ricardo Trevilla Trejo, from the Cavalry, has also been very close to General Sandoval and in projects of interest to President López Obrador, such as the creation of the National Guard, a military corps that until now is formally part of the Security Secretariat, but whose organization and operation depends on the Army.

General Trevilla, 62, is the first Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the National Defense, a position created during this administration in February 2022, and which is defined as the immediate collaborator of the High Command in the planning and operation of the Army's land and air activities.

In 2023, he was appointed commander of the parade column and its staff for the 113th anniversary of Independence.

His operational experience includes command of the 43rd Military Zone, in Apatzingán, Michoacán; command of the Military Garrison in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, and head of the Command Group of the Fifth Motorized Cavalry Regiment and Motorized Cavalry Military School. 

He has also been trained at the Army War College and the National Defense College and has taken courses abroad, including the Basic Course for Military Intelligence Officers at the School of the Americas, in the United States, and the Problems of International Politics at the Faculty of Philosophy of the Federal Republic of Germany.

He has been director of Social Communication of the Sedena and deputy military and air attaché at the Mexican Embassy in Germany.

Other divisionaries mentioned are General Andres Fernando Aguirre Osunza, director of the National Defense College; General Francisco Leana Ojeda, commander of the Third Military Region, based in Mazatlan, Sinaloa, and General Julio Alvarez Arellano, commander of the Sixth Military Region, in Puebla.

FOLLOW-UP

RICARDO TREVILLA TREJO

GABRIEL GARCIA RINCON

SOURCE: PROCESO