-Caveat Lector-
The Year the Generals Came Back
All over Latin America, the armed forces are serving notice that civilian
leaders should not take their loyalty and obedience for granted
Marching forward: In Colombia and other Latin American countries, generals
still play a major role in national politics
By Joseph Contreras
NEWSWEEK INTERNATIONAL
Dec. 25 issue - The predawn visit's significance barely registered on
anyone outside Peru. Nevertheless, it reflected a major shift in the nation'
s balance of power, even amid the chaos of Alberto Fujimori's dizzying fall.
IN THE SMALL hours of Sept. 19, three nights after announcing his
decision to quit the presidency as of July 2001, Fujimori met with the
military's top brass at their headquarters, nicknamed the Little Pentagon.
Coup rumors were running wild, and the embattled leader needed to make sure
his generals would stand behind him until new elections could be held. The
officers finally released a public pledge of their support. The respite
helped him hang on long enough to gain safe haven in Japan, where his right
to citizenship was affirmed last week. But another message, no less
important, emerged from the early-morning huddle: the president went to the
generals, not the other way round.
"Some people thought the military would vanish as a political force after
the end of the cold war. But the military has not given up its right to
judge civilian governments."
- RICHARD MILLETT
expert on the Latin American military After years on the sidelines,
the Army is back in the game-not only in Peru but elsewhere in the region.
There are still no signs anywhere of an imminent return to direct military
rule. Even so, Latin America's armed forces in country after country have
served notice over the past year that their loyalty is not to be taken for
granted by their democratically elected chiefs of state. "Some people
thought the military would vanish as a political force after the end of the
cold war," says Richard Millett, an expert on the Latin American military at
the University of Miami's North-South Center. "But the military has not
given up its right to judge civilian governments."
These days the generals don't have that much to think about except
politics. Colombia is the only country in the region with a serious armed
insurgency. Still, many officers in neighboring lands think the onset of
peace should hardly exclude their armies from an active role in public life.
"We were the architects of [Latin American] independence, and we are the
guardians of nationhood," says Daniel Mora, a retired Peruvian general. "The
armed forces should participate in the development of the country." The
question is who will lead. When Gen. Augusto Pinochet flew home to Chile in
March to face possible human-rights charges in connection with the deaths of
more than 3,000 people during his 17-year dictatorship, a vast turnout of
generals and admirals gave their former boss a hero's welcome. Ricardo
Lagos, the incoming president, could only stand by and vow: "A tremendous
effort will be made to demonstrate to the world that this is a democratic
country."
Civilian rule can be a fragile thing. As the year began, Ecuador
suffered the first military ouster of a sitting South American president in
nearly a quarter century. A group of disgruntled colonels banded together
with radical indigenous leaders to stage a bloodless coup against the
bitterly unpopular president, Jamil Mahuad. A three-man junta seized power
but gave it up hours later, scared off by the prospect of harsh
international sanctions throughout the region against any threat of
reversion to military rule. But the appeal of army leadership persists in
some of Latin America's more desperate areas where civilian governments have
failed to solve recession, endemic corruption and soaring crime rates. J.
Samuel Fitch, a professor at the University of Colorado, calls it "a
slippage in the legitimacy of democracy."
Nowhere is the slippage more evident than in Venezuela, one of the
oldest democracies in Latin America. A former Army lieutenant colonel who
led a failed coup attempt in 1992, President Hugo Chavez likes to attend
public functions wearing his trademark red beret and camouflage fatigues.
Since taking office nearly two years ago, he has assigned dozens of senior
officers to key civilian posts. He has mobilized troops by the tens of
thousands for civic-action projects ranging from the construction of new
schools to the distribution of subsidized food in poverty-stricken towns.
Critics accuse him of trying to militarize Venezuelan society, but voters
have shrugged off the warnings, giving victories to him and his political
allies in six straight elections and referendums.
Many officers privately worry that Chavez is trying to create a
thinly disguised dictatorship. One National Guard captain went public with
his misgivings in June. The captain was summarily relieved of his duties.
"Every officer knows his career depends on how close he is to the
president," says former Venezuelan Defense minister Fernando Ochoa Antich.
"There is great discontent within the armed forces, and Chavez knows it."
Still, most generals wisely keep their ambitions in check. Running a
nation can be a brutal job, as Latin America's dictators proved repeatedly
in the 1970s. Thanks in part to their disastrous example, democracy has
rarely been so strong in places like Mexico, where the monolithic
Institutional Revolutionary Party peacefully ended its 79-year reign.
Orderly transfers of power also took place over the past year in Chile,
Guatemala and the Dominican Republic. Peace and democracy are likely to
last-as long as soldiers and civilians remember the lessons of the past.
� 2000 Newsweek, Inc.
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A>
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html
<A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
<A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
