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Mexico: The authority that issues the National Military Service Card (Cartilla del Servicio Militar Nacional) and the purposes for which it is issued; whether military cards are required in order to obtain employment, to acquire a passport or to be married; whether the authorities are able to monitor the usage of military cards as identity documents

The website of the National Council for Education for Life and Work (Consejo Nacional de Educación para la Vida y el Trabajo, CONEVyT), a federal government agency in Mexico that provides information on employment and education, states that the National Military Service Card (Cartilla del Servicio Militar Nacional) is issued by the Ministry of National Defense (Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional, SEDENA) to male citizens who are at least eighteen years old and have fulfilled their national military service obligations (Mexico n.d.c.).

The National Military Service Card is not mentioned on the list of documents required to obtain a marriage certificate (ibid.).

The website of the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores) mentions the National Military Service Card on its list of supporting documents that can be submitted when applying for a passport, but it is not a requirement as other documents can be used (Mexico n.d.a.). The government regulations for obtaining passports changed in 2002 and military cards were subsequently no longer required for that purpose (Mexico n.d.b.).

A 27 February 2008 article in a local newspaper in Ciudad Madero, Tamaulipas cites the head of the local military recruitment office as stating that the military card is [translation] "the most important official document Mexicans have for all types of procedures, as well as for travelling abroad and as a means of identification" (Diario Debate 27 Feb. 2008). He further stated that Mexican companies such as [translation] "CFE [the state-run electricity company], TELMEX [a large private telephone company], PEMEX [the state-run oil company] and others ask all employees for a military card indicating release from service, as do foreign companies" established in Mexico (ibid.).

Cited in a 6 November 2008 press release by the Tijuana municipal government, the head of the local military recruitment board there attributed an increase in 2008 of the number of young men applying for their military card to the number of companies requiring them to have the card as a condition of employment (Tijuana 6 Nov. 2008).

Corroborating information on whether specific companies require employment applicants to show their National Military Service Card and information on whether the authorities are able to monitor the usage of military cards as identity documents could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim for refugee protection. Please find below the list of sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

References

Diario Debate [Ciudad Madero, Mexico]. 27 February 2008. Victor Palacios. "Cartilla Militar no ha perdido vigencia." <http://diariodebate.info/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=6736> [Accessed 14 Nov. 2008]

Mexico. N.d.a. Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores. "Pasaportes: Requisitos para la expedición de pasaportes por primera vez-Mayores de edad." <http://www.sre.gob.mx/pasaportes/primeravez/mayoresedad.htm> [Accessed 28 Nov. 2008]
_____. N.d.b. Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores. "Pasaporte." <http://www.embamexcan.com/CONSULAR/Pasaporte.shtml> [Accessed 18 May 2007]
_____. N.d.c. Consejo Nacional de Educación para la Vida y el Trabajo. "Documentos y trámites para la vida." <http://conevyt.org.mx/cursos/enciclope/tramites.html> [Accessed 14 Nov. 2008]

Tijuana (Mexico). 6 November 2008. "Participaran cuatro mil 410 jovenes en sorteo del Servicio Militar Nacional." <http://www.tijuana.gob.mx/noticia.asp?ildComunicado=3344#> [Accessed 14 Nov. 2008]

Additional Sources Consulted

Internet sources, including: Amnesty International (AI), Human Rights First, Freedom House, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), Latin American Network Information Center (LANIC), Mexico Solidarity Network, ) Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).