The Mexican military will have new leaders now that incoming President Claudia Sheinbaum has started her term. Gen. Ricardo Trevilla Trejo will head the Secretariat of National Defense (SEDENA) and Adm. Raymundo Morales Angeles will be Secretariat of the Navy (SEMAR). SEDENA
THE WATCH STAFF
Mexico’s incoming President, Claudia Sheinbaum, named her picks to lead the Mexican Armed Forces in early September 2024, weeks before she assumes power. Sheinbaum announced her selection of Gen. Ricardo Trevilla Trejo to head the Secretariat of National Defense (SEDENA) and Adm. Raymundo Morales Angeles as Secretariat of the Navy (SEMAR) on September 6, 2024. Both are seen by the domestic press and international observers as strong supporters of the current President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO). The much-anticipated selections signal that Sheinbaum intends to continue many of the national security and defense policies of her predecessor.
Gen. Trevilla, 63, from Campeche state, attended the prestigious National Defense College in Mexico City and holds advanced degrees in public administration and military administration for internal security and national defense. He has been involved in the fight against illegal trafficking in Chiapas and helped lead the government response to COVID-19, according to domestic and international press reports.
Adm. Morales, 58, from Oaxaca state, studied at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C., and took courses with the U.S. Coast Guard. He has served as the chief of communications of the Mexican Navy’s general staff. Under AMLO, Morales served as director of the Interoceanic Corridor, a major infrastructure project to modernize the rail link between Mexico’s Pacific and Gulf coasts on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec to create a trade route the government hopes will compete with the Panama Canal, Reuters reported. Morales has also served as Deputy Naval Attaché to the Mexican Embassy in Washington, D.C, according to Reuters.
The responsibilities of the military have greatly expanded during AMLO’s six-year presidency to include constructing major infrastructure projects, a commercial airline and a new tourist train, according to Reuters.
Sheinbaum told reporters that she selected Trevilla and Morales after an extensive search, Reuters reported. She takes office October 1. Sheinbaum acknowledged the “work and dedication” of outgoing SEDENA Secretary Luis Cresencio Sandoval González and SEMAR Secretary José Rafael Ojeda Durán, according to Mexico News Daily, an online news website. Sheinbaum won election easily in June.
Sheinbaum has said she wants “good relations” with the U.S. as the countries work together to battle myriad challenges, including illegal migration and the scourge of transnational crime. Sheinbaum, a 61-year-old former Mexico City mayor and climate scientist, is the first woman elected to the highest office in Mexico and the country’s first Jewish president. In her victory speech to supporters, she stressed the historic importance of her election. “For the first time in 200 years of the republic, I will become the first female president of Mexico,” she said, according to The New York Times newspaper. “And as I have said on other occasions, I do not arrive alone. We all arrived, with our heroines who gave us our homeland, with our ancestors, our mothers, our daughters and our granddaughters.”