President Hipólito Mejía created new departments in the Armed Forces. These are the Human Rights Military Institute (Instituto Militar de los Derechos Humanos), the Program for Education and Professional Training (Programa de Educación y Capacitación Profesional) and the Institute for Defense and National Security Higher Studies (Instituto de los Altos Estudios para la Defensa y la Seguridad Nacional). These new departments are part of a plan to modernize the Armed Forces. The President also appointed former chief of the Air Force, Major General Hugo Rafael González Borrel as the new president of the Permanent Commission for the Modernization and Reform of the Armed Forces and the National Police. He appointed Major General Rafael Guillermo Bueno Vásquez to the post of chief of the Air Force.
