Civil-Military Relations Update Share This /

This post was compiled by WOLA Intern Mia Fasano.

• Retired Chile army captain Víctor Echeverría Henríquez, father of incoming President Michelle Bachelet's nominee to be sub-secretary of the armed forces, is being tried for his alleged connection to human rights abuses following the country’s 1973 coup. He is accused of involvement in the torture of Mercedes Bulnes, as outlined in the Valech Commission report. His daughter, Carolina Echeverría, is now under scrutiny about her views on the human rights accountability process as she is being appointed to her position as the Sub-secretary of the Armed Forces.

• The government of Nicaragua recently published the revised text of its constitution, which includes a larger concentration of power in the executive branch. President Daniel Ortega announced the promotion of Brigadier General Oscar Mojica, the founder of the Sandinista army in 1979, to the Major General position. President Ortega also promoted Brigadier General Adolfo Zepeda to army inspector.

• As massive protests in Venezuela continue, President Nicolás Maduro has ordered paratroopers to patrol the streets of San Cristobal, Táchira, in an attempt to stop protests.

• In Peru, Humberto Rosas Bonuccelli, the former director of the National Intelligence Service (SIN), testified in the “diarios chichas” corruption case that former dictator Alberto Fujimori authorized the transfer of US$750,000 per month from the armed forces to the National Intelligence Service during his 2000 election campaign. Vladimiro Montesinos, the currently imprisoned director of SIN, used the money to pay television channels and media forums.

• Human rights organizations in El Salvador are demanding public access to military documents containing information about massacres that occurred during the height of state repression between 1981 and 1983. Journalists and human rights organizations have denounced a lack of accountability and transparency within the Ministry of Defense, which they claim violates the Law of Public Access to Information.

• Authorities in Jamaica have created a truth-telling panel to investigate the use of excessive force during a military operation in which 70 people were killed in May of 2010. The operation was carried out to capture drug kingpin Christopher “Dudus” Coke and reestablish control of Tivoli Gardens, a low-income area. Citizens and activists have demanded a formal investigation into the operation.

• Around 100 protesters in Mexico gathered to protest a weeks-long military exhibition in the Zócalo, Mexico City's central square. They held up signs that read “Zócalo is not a barracks.” The protestors held a symbolic moment of silence to commemorate the assassination of Mexican journalist Gregorio Jiménez.

• Retired members of the armed forces and the police in Lima, Peru gathered to demand more comprehensive pension plans and other financial improvements.

• Paraguay has proposed several changes to the organization of the armed forces in order to increase effectiveness between the separate branches. The three major branches of the armed forces will be converted into two in order to increase intelligence sharing capability and improve cooperation. In the reformed structure, the Navy and the Air Force will be under the same command.

• President Otto Pérez Molina defended the army's continued use for policing duties in Guatemala, in response to calls from Foro Guatemala, a civil-society group, for a separation of military and police roles. Pérez Molina said that due to the current security situation, “the role of the army cannot be separated from citizen security.”