Honduras 1, Liberia 2,
Marshall Islands 4, Panama 2, Portugal 1, Spain 3, Venezuela 5,
unknown 1) (2008)

Ports and terminals:

Altamira, Coatzacoalcos, Manzanillo, Morro Redondo, Salina Cruz,
Tampico, Veracruz

Military
Mexico

Military branches:

Secretariat of National Defense (Secretaria de Defensa Nacional,
Sedena): Army (Ejercito, includes Mexican Air Force (Fuerza Aerea
Mexicana, FAM)); Secretariat of the Navy (Secretaria de Marina,
Semar): Mexican Navy (Armada de Mexico, ARM, includes Naval Air
Force (FAN) and naval infantry) (2008)

Military service age and obligation:

18 years of age for compulsory military service, conscript service
obligation - 12 months; 16 years of age with consent for voluntary
enlistment; conscripts serve only in the Army; Navy and Air Force
service is all voluntary; women are eligible for voluntary military
service (2007)

Manpower available for military service:

males age 16-49: 27,774,688
females age 16-49: 29,376,791 (2008 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:

males age 16-49: 22,188,284
females age 16-49: 24,884,614 (2008 est.)

Manpower reaching militarily significant age annually:

male: 1,110,544
female: 1,073,223 (2008 est.)

Military expenditures:

0.5% of GDP (2006 est.)

Transnational Issues
Mexico

Disputes - international:

abundant rainfall in recent years along much of the Mexico-US border
region has ameliorated periodically strained water-sharing
arrangements; the US has intensified security measures to monitor
and control legal and illegal personnel, transport, and commodities
across its border with Mexico; Mexico must deal with thousands of
impoverished Guatemalans and other Central Americans who cross the
porous border looking for work in Mexico and the United States

Refugees and internally displaced persons:

IDPs: 5,500-10,000 (government's quashing of Zapatista uprising in
1994 in eastern Chiapas Region) (2007)

Illicit drugs:

major drug-producing nation; cultivation of opium poppy in 2007 rose
to 6,900 hectares yielding a potential production of 18 metric tons
of pure heroin, or 50 metric tons of "black tar" heroin, the
dominant form of Mexican heroin in the western United States;
marijuana cultivation increased to 8,900 hectares in 2007 and
yielded a potential production of 15,800 metric tons; government
conducts the largest independent illicit-crop eradication program in
the world; continu