Latin American Civil-Military Relations Update Share This /

This post was compiled by WOLA Intern Alejandro Urruti Heath.

·Human rights organizations in Argentina continue to voice concerns about the army chief, Lieutenant General César Milani, a former military intelligence head who rose to his post in 2013. The Professional Center for Human Rights (Ceprodh), the Association of Ex-Disappeared (AEDD), the Coordinator Against Police and Institutional Repression (Correpi), and the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo Founding Line asked that Gen. Milani be removed from office. They believe that, during Argentina’s last military dictatorship, Gen. Milani, then a young officer, participated in the June 1976 forced disappearance of Alberto Agapito Ledo.

·A statement from Bolivia’s armed forces notified that at least thirty percent of the military’s more than thirty thousand draftees will remain in action beyond their normal tours of duty in order to respond to potential natural disasters.

·Over the last 14 years, Brazil has seen a 205 percent increase in female military personnel, from 7,804 in 2001 to 23,787 in 2015. This may speak to changing perceptions of gender within this South American giant. 

·Brazilians have elected an increasing number of right-wing politicians with military or police experience, the New York Times reported. In the new Congress, about 21 of these legislators are being called the “Bullet Caucus” for the conservative measures they hope to pass, such as expanding the populace’s access to firearms and repealing laws that protect adolescents from being tried as adults, as well as for having their campaigns heavily funded by Brazilian arms manufacturers. Blatant remarks made recently in Congress, such as Mr. Jair Bolonaro’s proclamation that he would not rape a fellow congresswoman owing to the fact that she “does not merit” such an honor, worry human rights defenders who see a danger of reduced accountability for the security forces.

·On December 10, the National Truth Commission of Brazil published its report, which names 377 individuals responsible for over 400 disappearances and assassinations during the country’s 1964-1985 military dictatorship. Unlike their counterparts in nations with similar histories, such as Chile or Argentina, the Brazilian officials culpable of these crimes have neither denied allegations nor pled guilty. The Commission’s report draws connections between the police brutality of the old regime and that of the current era, where between 2009 and 2013, the state reported security forces’ killing of 11,197 people. The report recommends that Brazil demilitarize its police forces that, though now under civilian command, have undergone few institutional reforms since the dictatorship.

·Over the last four years, Chile’s police and armed forces have received 130 internal complaints of sexual harassment and abuse, but only 15 individuals have been punished. José Antonio Gómez, Minister of Justice, has stated that such actions are intolerable and that he hopes to move legislation to ease investigations and prosecutions.

·Colombia’s armed forces have begun to get more directly involved in peace talks with the FARC guerrillas in Havana, Cuba. The government’s representation on an “End of Conflict Subcommittee,” which is discussing ways to de-escalate the armed conflict and bring about a bilateral cease-fire, includes five active-duty generals and one admiral. The talks, which have been taking place since 2012, continue to raise significant issues for civil-military relations. An unknown military source leaked an internal Army document to Former President Álvaro Uribe, a prominent critic of the peace talks, who then posted it to his Twitter account. The document claimed that, despite the FARC’s declaration of a unilateral cease-fire, the guerrillas were planning attacks. FARC negotiators proposed a “reform of the military forces and police”—a topic ostensibly off the negotiating agenda—which generated a negative reaction among sectors close to the military. Negotiators have also begun to discuss the subject of transitional justice for human rights violators in both the FARC and the armed forces, which is perhaps the most difficult question left to resolve. The armed forces, meanwhile, forced the retirement of five officers and fired nineteen others for their involvement in the “Andromeda” scandal: revelations, which first surfaced in February 14, that military intelligence personnel were using a Bogotá internet café as a front for hacking into the personal communications of numerous civilians, among them government peace negotiators in Havana.

·Marine Capt. Jenny Camacho Torres became the first female officer of Colombia to be charged with leading a battalion, which will oversee six coastal municipalities in Chocó, Valle, and Cauca.

·The prison at the Colombian Army’s base in Tolemaida, which has housed several officers found guilty of human rights abuse, was closed. The facility became controversial after media reports documented its prisoners’ luxurious treatment. Military prisoners would enjoy the food of private chefs, host large parties, and occasionally leave to visit Bogota or visit their families for holidays.

·In December, opposition Senator Iván Cepeda in Colombia sought to freeze the promotion of five military officers believed to be under investigation for human rights abuses. Cepeda’s effort was overturned and the promotions went forward.

·In December, Costa Rica celebrated the 66^th Anniversary of the Abolition of the Armed Forces. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon marked the occasion by stating that, “for decades, Costa Rica has been an example to the rest of the world of how a nation is able to abolish military forces. Instead of investing in arms and training, the nation has instead been able to invest in health and education, resulting in both less inequality and more peace.”

·Juan Orlando Zepeda, a retired general who, according to the Truth Commission for El Salvador’s civil war, participated in the violation of human rights, made public his plan to run for a seat in the national legislature. Gen. Zepeda, who is protected by the country’s post-conflict amnesty law, denies responsibility for any wrongdoing, despite compelling evidence to the contrary. 

·The Armed Forces of El Salvador and local gangs have been caught in violent confrontations recently in the state of Zacatecoluca. This comes after rumors that the gangs would not allow locals to be on the streets after 6PM started to circulate on Facebook and Twitter brought one hundred officers into the area.

·President Juan Orlando Hernández failed to convince the Honduran legislature to change the constitution to grant permanent status to the country’s new Preventative Military Police force (PMOP). This force, created in 2013 at Hernández’s initiative when he presided over the legislature, is to have 5,000 members. President Hernández had sought to have the PMOP respond directly to him, avoiding the usual channels of the chain of command. The President announced a new, national campaign to promote the constitutional change through another means, such as a referendum.

·Honduras meanwhile established a new hybrid military/police force with the purpose of “investigating serious crimes with a strong social impact.” The Technical Criminal Investigation Agency (ATIC) is thus far composed of 39 women and 58 men who have undergone “intensive instruction in law, criminology, forensic science, investigative techniques, as well as physical and tactical training,” with the goal of reducing the amount of unsolved homicides committed in Honduras. Predominantly stationed in Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula, the force has been divided into the following four units: crimes against life and sexual liberty, organized crime, public administration, and a technical-scientific department.

·Critics in Honduras viewed the December appointment of active military General Julian Pacheco as Minister of Security as a blatant effort to militarize citizen security. This comes after many other posts, such as “the head of the penitentiary system, the customs chief, the director of civilian aviation and the managers of the housing and social service agencies” have been filled with military members, as InsightCrime notes.

·The Supreme Court (SCJN) of Mexico proposed that all human rights cases in which the victims are civilians out of combat should go through civil courts instead of military courts, regardless of the context under which such crimes are committed. This comes after the 2010 decision by the Inter-American Human Rights Court that found Mexico guilty of evading its duty to guarantee international standards of protection for victims of such abuses. The 2010 case condemned Mexico’s failure to punish soldiers who raped two indigenous women in Guerrero in 2002.

·In a speech commemorating the 102^nd anniversary of the “March of Loyalty,” Mexico’s Secretary of Defense, Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda, declared that, “There are many who wish to separate us (the Armed Forces) from the people (the Mexican community). Impossible. We are one and the same.” The defensive tone may result from eroding trust in Mexico’s political institutions in the wake of 2014 human rights scandals in Iguala and Tlatlaya.

·Military personnel connected to the June 2014 killings of civilians in Tlataya, Mexico state, have reported conflicting narratives of what occurred. Originally, seven soldiers expressly stated that two generals were informed of that day’s happenings, but after receiving instructions to replace their attorneys with others provided by the Secretariat of National Defense, their testimonies changed.

·The security plan for the violence-torn state of Michoacán, Mexico changed again. Commissioner Castillo Cervantes stepped down from his appointment to head security at the behest of President Peña Nieto, who replaced the commission with a special team headed by General Felipe Gurrola Ramírez.

·Talks are ongoing regarding the entry into military quarters in Iguala, Guerrero, Mexico by the National Commission of Human Rights (CNDH), the families of the missing 43 students from last September, and other human rights defenders. Some relatives and human rights groups believe that military personnel may have played a role in disposing of the bodies of the students, who were disappeared by local police and drug traffickers after they sought to commandeer buses for a trip to Mexico City. The investigators want information about a crematorium believed to be on the premises of the local Army base. Nevertheless, the families have been denied access and are seeking alternative legal options.

·Mexico’s Secretariat of National Defense (SEDENA) published a revised code of conduct, with a focus on lessening instances of corruption and impunity. In the language of the document, the new code calls for absolute impartiality in the treatment of citizens, regardless of national/ethnic origin, gender, age, disability, social condition, health, religion, opinions, sexual orientation, or civil status, and emphasizes the agency’s respect for human rights and international, humanitarian conventions.

·The Government of Nicaragua increased the military presence in the Department of Boaco in order to protect the production and procurement of coffee, a principal export crop.

·The minister of women and vulnerable populations (MIMP) of Peru, Carmen Omonte, has formally requested of the Minister of Defense that more young, rural women be allowed to serve in the nation’s armed forces. Ms. Omote views military service as a path for social advancement and gender equality.

·A new resolution promulgated by Venezuela’s Ministry of Defense will permit its Armed Forces (including the regular Army) to police civilian protests and administer lethal force when considered necessary, much to the chagrin of human rights advocates. Though Resolution 8610 does stipulate the circumstances under which said force is deemed to be acceptable, the language is relatively ambiguous and at times contradictory. For example, Section 7, Article 22 of the bill stipulates that the Armed Forces cannot carry firearms on such missions, except when the use of firearms is considered necessary.

·The government of Venezuela has released more accusations of organized coups d’états against President Maduro’s administration. Among those under investigation are several members of the armed forces.

·Experts in Venezuela claim that agents in the nation’s military intelligence agency, Dirección de Inteligencia Militar (DIM), were increasingly involved in kidnapping and extortion during the 8-year the leadership of Hugo Carvajal; the man who currently faces charges by the U.S. Treasury Department for alleged support of Colombian narcotrafficking. According to non-government investigators citing witnesses who underwent these abuses, intelligence agents would kidnap civilians and torture them while extorting them for money, before handing them over to the police.

·Taken together, only 1 out of every 10,000 members of the armed forces of Argentina, Mexico, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, El Salvador, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, and Uruguay is female.