HomeNewsBriefMexico, Guatemala Have Lowest Military Spending in LatAm
BRIEF

Mexico, Guatemala Have Lowest Military Spending in LatAm

GUATEMALA / 8 AUG 2012 BY HANNAH STONE EN

Guatemala and Mexico have the smallest military budgets as a percentage of GDP in Latin America, according to Mexican newspaper Excelsior.

Excelsior reported that Mexico’s armed forces receive 0.49 percent of GDP, while Guatemala’s receive just 0.40 percent. At the other end of the list are Chile, with 2.43 percent of GDP spent on the military, and Colombia, with 2.3. The United States, meanwhile, spends some 4.06 percent.

InSight Crime Analysis

Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico are amongst the countries that face the biggest threat from organized crime in the hemisphere, and all have deployed their militaries domestically to fight drug trafficking. However, their levels of military spending relative to GDP vary greatly, as shown on graph, below.

Guatemala's military spending has dropped sharply in recent decades, down from 1.59 percent of GDP in 1988, while the civil war was still raging, to its current figure of 0.4 percent, according to figures from the World Bank.

The 1996 peace accords set the army's budget at 0.66 percent of GDP, but in 2004, the government set the limit at 0.33 percent of GDP, and cut troop numbers from 23,000 to 15,500. Last year, then-President Alvaro Colom repealed the limit, saying it had been a "historic error." The Defense Ministry said that the budget limit had allowed organized crime and drug trafficking to grow in key parts of the country like San Marcos, Quiche and Izabal, which were left "at the mercy" of organized crime.

Mexico's military spending is also low due to historical political factors -- Reuters has attributed this to the country's "rejection of military intervention after decades of post-colonial warring that culminated in its bloody revolution of 1910-1920," as well as its embrace of non-alignment doctrine.

Colombia's military spending has historically been far higher than that of Mexico or Guatemala, as it has been fighting a civil conflict within its borders since the 1960s. Spending was given a big boost with the inception of US aid program Plan Colombia in 2000, which has handed over some $7 billion, mostly in military aid, since then.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

CHAPITOS / 23 JUN 2023

The CJNG, Sinaloa Cartel, Chapitos and more have used military-style patches to promote unity and loyalty.

CHAPITOS / 9 JAN 2023

Mexico has arrested one of El Chapo's sons, Ovidio, at a bitter cost. But will it make a difference to…

EL MENCHO / 18 NOV 2021

The arrest of the wife of CJNG boss El Mencho is being interpreted as a win against the cartel and…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Rights Watch Draws on InSight Crime's Haiti Coverage

18 AUG 2023

Non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch relied on InSight Crime's coverage this week, citing six articles and one of our criminal profiles in its latest report on the humanitarian…