Latin America is, perhaps, the region with the least military ambition in the world…
their governments spend relatively very little on defense, and in general, with some exceptions,
creating large and powerful armies is not a priority.
Despite this, the subject of the Armed Forces has been a very controversial issue in this
region for years.
And...
No wonder, because the second half of the 20th century wasn’t exactly a quiet time
for Latin America.
Throughout this period, and especially in the 1960s and 1970s, this region was one of
the territories in the world which was most affected by military force.
In
these years, practically every country in the region participated in what became a kind
of macabre tradition of coups, military groups and, of course, plenty of repression.
For example, let's take a look at 1978...
In that year, among other countries, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay,
Peru, Cuba, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Panama and even the peaceful Uruguay were
under a military dictatorship.
And forgive me if I left any out... as you can see its a pretty long list.
Dictators of every kind existed: left, right, pro-US, anti-US, harder, softer... but they
all had a common element: repression.
And yes, in the framework of the Cold War and block struggles, many of these dictatorships
were supported by the United States under the framework of what was later known as Operation
Condor.
A sinister intelligence and collaboration plan forged between the military dictatorships
of Videla’s Argentina, Pinochet’s Chile, Alfredo Stroessner’s Paraguay, Joao Figueiredo’s
Brazil and Bordaberry’s Uruguay.
All aided by the CIA in order to achieve a single objective: persecute and annihilate
the political opposition, especially the leftist groups that were supported by the Soviet regime.
Of course...
the dictatorships forged under the other political color weren’t any better, not at all...
Considering this, it isn’t hard to imagine why the Armed Forces issue has been so controversial.
Well, more than 30 years have passed since this dark period... and in this video we’ll
aim to answer several questions:
What is the current state of Latin America’s armies?
What functions do they have?
Do they pose any risk to these countries’ democracy and freedom?
Well, let’s have a look…
ARMIES IN LATIN AMERICA
Before we begin, and just out of curiosity, let me ask you a question:
Which do you think are the strongest, most powerful armies in Latin America?
Well, this is always quite subjective, but according to the Global FirePower Index 2017
(an indicator that attempts to measure which armies are more powerful under different parameters).
These are the top 5 in Latin America:
The first place may not be surprising, Brazil, the greatest regional power.
It is followed, in this order, by Mexico, Argentina, Peru and Colombia.
The truth is that Latin America is the region with the smallest budget dedicated to defense.
In 2016, it was just over 1% of its GDP, about $67 billion.
This expenditure is much lower than the global average, especially because Latin American
armies tend to have quite a high number of soldiers.
To get an idea, in total the region has over 1,730,000 soldiers...
And of course, the combination of a low budget with many soldiers, leads to outdated armies
with lots of operational problems.
Let's take a look at the most important army, the Brazilian army.
Brazil spends $23.7 billion every year... which sounds like a lot, right?
Well, the problem is that it has more than 340,000 soldiers, which means that three-quarters
of the budget goes to salaries and pensions.
If to this we add basic supplies, then… the money left for equipment is very, very
low.
And in the rest of Latin America, ratios are similar...
on average, 70% of the money goes directly to salaries....
In other words, Latin American armies usually have a lot of soldiers and very little equipment...
LOOKING INWARDS
So, if we talk about armies, wars, and conflicts between countries, we could say that Latin
America is one of the most peaceful regions in the world.
The last armed conflict occurred in 1995 in what was later known as the Cenepa War, which
involved Ecuador and Peru... even though no formal declaration of war was ever made.
Since then, a trend has begun that has made Latin America a benchmark:
Every time there is a conflict between countries, instead of threatening each other with bombs
and cannons, those involved resort to international justice.
This is what is currently happening, for example, with the conflict between Bolivia and Chile
over the seafront - a conflict that is being resolved at the International Court of Justice
in The Hague.
"Bolivia replies to the lawsuit against Chile at The Hague Court for sea access”.
BBC
However...
Internally things are completely different.
We could say that Latin America has the record for being the most peaceful region and at
the same time, the most violent one....
What I mean here, is that between countries there is no serious threat of war... but the
situation is different if we talk about internal violence…
So... because apparently all "enemies" are at home, Latin American military forces focus
on at-home tasks…
such as confronting guerrillas, drug traffickers, or dealing with just violence in general...
In fact, in the region, it is becoming increasingly common for military forces to replace the
police in security and surveillance tasks.
The problem here is that evidence shows that soldiers aren’t really good at playing the
role of police…
THE INSUFFICIENT SOLUTION
Contrary to what we might think at first, crime rates in Brazil or Mexico, far from
decreasing, have increased since soldiers began to participate in citizen security.
In fact, the 5 most dangerous cities in the world, Caracas, Acapulco, San Pedro Sula,
Central District and Victoria, have a military presence.
And that's not all.
Power abuse, extrajudicial detentions, or collateral victims, have also increased with
military presence, which further favors and feeds a culture of violence…
Something that is unfortunately far too widespread in the region nowadays.
The thing is that soldiers are forces trained for war, to eliminate the enemy, not to impose
order and the rule of law.
To achieve this, what is needed are detectives, courts and judges, local police forces, and
citizen collaboration…
Not the military.
We can take a look at what has happened, for example, in Mexico.
As soon as he became president, in December 2006, Felipe Calderón declared a war on drugs
and placed the army on the streets.
Since then, not only has narcotics trafficking not decreased, homicide rates have tripled.
The army is simply not enough...
They can, of course, lend a hand in very serious cases, but they cannot be a police force…
It simply doesn’t work.
Yes, I know that corruption in the police is a problem, but this isn’t fixed by simply
resorting to using the army.
This actually leads to two other major problems:
The first one is political risk.
Consider this:
"Latin America’s armed forces must be anti-imperialist" Evo Morales.
Well, what do you want me to say?
To me, seeing politicians using military forces to defend their political ideas, whatever
they may be, seems very, very dangerous.
Using the power of force is always going to be very tempting...
This is what has happened, for example, in Venezuela, where the Armed Forces have become
something like the Praetorian Guard for Nicolás Maduro’s Bolivarian regime.
And if that wasn’t enough, there is also the corruption problem...
See, the military industry is an opaque industry with huge contracts...
two basic ingredients for corruption.
Just see what happened in 2010 in the Dominican Republic:
"In 2010 a major corruption scandal affected the Dominican Armed Forces due to the fraudulent
purchase of 8 Super Tucanos aircraft from the Brazilian company Embraer.
It is suspected that 87 million dollars remained in the hands of members of the country’s
political and military hierarchy."
LILIAN BOBEA, professor at Bentley University in Massachusetts.
And that’s just one example, and not even the most important one.
So, taking all of this into account, maybe it would be good to consider creating a military
alliance?
...
A LATIN AMERICA NATO?
Allow me to propose an idea that may seem a bit crazy.
Based on what we just discussed, wouldn’t it be good to think about building a great
military alliance?
An alliance in which different countries could organize and provide different units and bodies
for different tasks.
This would have several advantages:
For one, military influence over political power would decrease and sovereignty would
be guaranteed for all countries…
In addition, and if necessary, during natural disasters, Latin American countries could
have an army that could deploy rapidly where they are needed.
It could also push for much needed Latin American integration, and to increase this region’s
role in world politics.
But, above all, it would free many resources, both economic and human, to promote citizen
security and reduce violence rates in these countries.
In a way the European Union is trying to do something similar...
so while it may sound like a bit of a crazy idea…
Maybe it’s really not that crazy after all…
For example, Costa Rica suppressed its army decades ago and the results in terms of security
have been better than those of its neighbors.
We’ve said before on VisualPolitik, that the 21st century will be India’s Century
(and probably China and Asia in general), but now we wonder, why not Latin America too?
Now it’s your turn, do you agree with soldiers replacing the police for ensuring security?
Let us know in the comments below.