Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T08:02:53.077Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Latin American Military, Low Intensity Conflict, and Democracy*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Gabriel Marcella*
Affiliation:
US Army War College, Quarry Heights, Panama

Extract

There can be no expression of a desire to return to political power when experience tells us that the result is totally negative for our country and fundamentally so for the armed forces (LAWR, 1986b).

— Chief of Staff, Army of Argentina

The most remarkable development in Latin America during the economically “lost decade” of the 1980s is the regionwide process of redemocratization. Close to 90% of the people of the region are ruled by civilian governments. The flowering of democratic, pluralistic, and participatory systems is still a noble aspiration, but it is radically different from the bleak political landscape of the 1960s and 1970s, when military governments prevailed. Nor is the appurtenance of civilian government equal to democracy. There is a large variety of civilian-military coalitions possible in a democratic setting.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 1990

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the US Department of Defense or of the US government.

References

Abrams, E. (1986) “A Democratic View of Security.” (Current Policy No. 844) Washington, DC: US Dept. of State, Bureau of Public Affairs.Google Scholar
Ames, R. (1988) Informe al Congreso sobre los Sucesos de los Penales, Lima, Peru: Talleres y Gráfica.Google Scholar
Arriagada, G. (1988) “Los Políticos y las Fuerzas Armadas.Que Pasa 891 (5 May): 34.Google Scholar
Arriagada, G. (1986) Pinochet: The Politics of Power (Nancy Morris translation of La Política Militar de Pinochet). Boston, MA: Unwin Hyman.Google Scholar
Foreign Broadcast Information Service - Latin America (FBIS-LAM) (1986a) “General Waldner Comments on ‘Full Stop’ Proposal.” Noticias Argentinas, 6 December, FBIS-LAM-86-236, 9 December: Bl-B3.Google Scholar
Foreign Broadcast Information Service - Latin America (FBIS-LAM) (1986b) “Alfonsín Speech Explains ‘Full Stop’ Proposal.” Buenos Aires Televisora Color Network, 6 December, in FBIS-LAM-86-235, 8 December: B1-B5.Google Scholar
Foreign Broadcast Information Service - Latin America (FBIS-LAM) (1986c) “Military Social Institutions View Amnesty.” Montevideo Radio Carve, 3 October, in FBIS-LAM-86-193, 6 October: K1.Google Scholar
Foreign Broadcast Information Service - Latin America (FBIS-LAM) (1986d) “Armed Forces Changes Reviewed.” Tegucigalpa Cadena Audio Video, 29 September, in FBIS-LAM-86-189, 30 September: P5.Google Scholar
Duarte, J. (1986) Duarte: My Own Story. New York, NY: G. H. Putnam Sons.Google Scholar
Duryea, Col. L. (1986)“US Foreign Policy and Local Corruption.” Paper presented at conference sponsored by VECINOS and the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, University of Texas-Austin, 4 March.Google Scholar
Fitch, J. (1988) “The Armed Forces and Democracy in Latin America: Towards A New Relationship.” Transition team document prepared for the Inter-American Dialogue, Washington, DC, December..Google Scholar
Fitch, J. (1987) “The Armed Forces and Democracy in Latin America.” Discussion Paper presented at the Plenary Session of the Inter-American Dialogue, Washington, DC, 16-18 October.Google Scholar
Frente Farabundo Martí de Liberación Nacional (FMLN) (1986) Concerning Our Plans: The Military Strategy of the FMLN. (Document captured and transcribed by the Atlacatl Battalion, near Perquin, El Salvador; translated and edited by Marcella, Gabriel, US Army War College, May).Google Scholar
Galvin, Gen. J. (1986) “Uncomfortable Wars: Toward a New Paradigm.” Parameters XVI, 4 (Winter): 28.Google Scholar
Gonzalez, Gen. L. (1968)“Ideas Contrary to the Spirit of May and their Repercussion in Argentine Political Life: A Military Opinion at the Service of Definitive Pacification,”speech given September 1956 and reprinted in pp. 193227 of Kalman H. SUvert's The Conflict Society: Reaction and Revolution in Latin America. New York, NY: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Huntington, S. (1981) The Soldier and the State: The Theory and Politics of Civil-Military Relations. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Jarama Davila, Lt.G. S. (1987) “Bases para el Diseño y Pianeamiento de una Estratégia Contrasubversiva.” Paper prepared by Chief of Peruvian delegation for the Interamerican Defense Board, Washington, DC (mimeo).Google Scholar
Latin American Weekly Report (LAWR) (1986a) “Uruguay: Congress Agrees on an Amnesty.” WR-86-39 (9 October): 9.Google Scholar
Latin American Weekly Report (LAWR) (1986b) “Argentina: Army Sympathy.” WR-86-38 (2 October): 9.Google Scholar
Manwaring, M. and Prisk, C. (1988) El Salvador at War: An Oral History. Washington, DC: National Defense University Press.Google Scholar
Mercado Jarrin, E. (1974) Seguridad, Política, Estratégia. Lima, Peru: Ministerio de Guerra.Google Scholar
New York Times (1986) “Uruguay Approves a Military Amnesty.” 23 December: A-3.Google Scholar
Nuñez-Bennett, Lt.Col. J. (1986) Honduras Defense Policy (paper prepared for International Fellows Program, 1985-86). Carlisle, PA: Carlisle Barracks, US Army War College.Google Scholar
Palmer, Gen. Bruce (1984) The 25-Year War: American Military Policy in Vietnam. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky.Google Scholar
Perelli, C. (1987) “Amnistía Si, Amnistía No, Amnistía Puede Ser … La Constitución Histórica de un Tema Político en el Uruguay de la Postransición” (paper prepared for Kellogg Institute, 7 January). South Bend, IN: University of Notre Dame.Google Scholar
Perelli, C. (1986) “Someter o Convencer: El Discurso Militar en el Uruguay de la Transición y la Redemocratización” (paper prepared for Kellogg Institute). South Bend, IN: University of Notre Dame.Google Scholar
Rial, J. (1986) Las Fuerzas Armadas: ¿Soldados Políticos o Garantes de la Democracia? South Bend, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
Salvatteci, J. (1986) Terrorismo y Guerra Sucia en el Peru. Lima, Peru: Punto Rojo.Google Scholar
Summers, H. (1982) On Strategy: A Critical Analysis of the Vietnam War. Novato, CA: Presidio Press.Google Scholar
US Dept. of State. (1986a) Retransmission of interview 2 November on Panama City Circuito RPC Television, reported in Telegram R190245, 18 November.Google Scholar
US Dept. of State. (1986b) The Situation in El Salvador (Special Report No. 144). Washington, DC: US Dept. of State, April.Google Scholar
Zubiaga, Col. V. (1985) Shining Path, Peruvian Peasants Rebellion (Military Studies Program paper). Carlisle, PA: US Army War College, Carlisle Barracks.Google Scholar