Mexico’s military splurged well beyond its original budget allotment last year — and most of those funds were used for infrastructure projects. The Defense Ministry — which includes the army and air force — was approved to spend 112 billion pesos‚ or roughly $6.6 billion‚ in 2023‚ according to the recently released public budget. It ended up spending 144 billion pesos‚ or 29% more. The Navy‚ a separate ministry‚ spent 57.5 billion pesos‚ or 37% more than its initial budget of 42 billion pesos.