The Soldier and the State in South America

The Soldier and the State in South America

Latin American Studies Series General Editors: Philip O Brien and Peter Flynn The series is an initiative designed to give a comprehensive analysis of some of the many complex problems facing contemporary Latin America and individual Latin American countries. Titles include: Rob Aitken, Nikki Craske, Gareth A. Jones and David E. Stansfield (editors) DISMANTLING THE MEXICAN STATE? Miguel A. Centeno and Patricio Silva (editors) THE POLITICS OF EXPERTISE IN LATIN AMERICA David E. Hojman (editor) NEO-LIBERAL AGRICULTURE IN RURAL CHILE Dermot Keogh (editor) CHURCH AND STATE IN LATIN AMERICA Peter Lambert and Andrew Nickson (editors) THE TRANSITION TO DEMOCRACY IN PARAGUAY Patricio Silva (editor) THE SOLDIER AND THE STATE IN SOUTH AMERICA Essays in Civil Military Relations David Slater TERRITORY AND STATE POWER IN LATIN AMERICA The Peruvian Case Latin American Studies Series Series Standing Order ISBN 0 333 71483 0 (outside North America only) You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address below with your name and address, the title of the series and the ISBN quoted above. Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England

The Soldier and the State in South America Essays in Civil Military Relations Edited by Patricio Silva Lecturer in Political Sociology Leiden University The Netherlands

Selection, editorial matter and Chapters 1 and 6 Patricio Silva 2001 Chapters 2 5, 7 10 Palgrave Publishers Ltd 2001 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2001 978-0-333-93093-9 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 0LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2001 by PALGRAVE Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE is the new global academic imprint of St. Martin s Press LLC Scholarly and Reference Division and Palgrave Publishers Ltd (formerly Macmillan Press Ltd). ISBN 978-1-349-42586-0 ISBN 978-0-333-97797-2 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/9780333977972 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The soldier and the state in South America : essays in civil military relations / edited by Patricio Silva. p. cm. (Latin American studies series) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Civil military relations South America. I. Silva, Patricio. II. Latin American studies series (New York, N.Y.) JL1856.C58 S65 2000 322'.5'098 dc21 00 048354 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01

Contents Preface Notes on the Contributors vii ix 1 The Soldier and the State in South America: Introduction 1 Patricio Silva 2 Foreign Influences on the South American Military: Professionalization and Politicization 13 Frederick M. Nunn 3 War, Society and the State in South America, 1800 70 39 Hans Vogel 4 The Army as a Modernizing Actor in Brazil, 1870 1930 53 Celso Castro 5 Military Governments: Continuity and Change in Twentieth-Century South America 71 George Philip 6 Forging Military Technocratic Alliances: The Ibáñez and Pinochet Regimes in Chile 87 Patricio Silva 7 Mourning and Mistrust in Civil Military Relations in Post-Dirty War Argentina 109 Antonius C.G.M. Robben 8 Political Orientations and Factionalism in the Brazilian Armed Forces, 1964 85 127 Kees Koonings 9 Civil Military Relations in Post-Authoritarian Chile Francisco Rojas Aravena 151 v

vi Contents 10 In Permanent Retreat? The Modest Future Role of the Armed Forces in South America 175 Paul Cammack References 195 Index 207

Preface After a long era of military rule, the South American nations have initiated the paramount task of constructing a new democratic order. Since then several institutional and legal transformations have taken place in an attempt to eradicate the authoritarian legacy left by former military regimes. Over the past years a broad consensus has arisen about the need to thoroughly reformulate the traditional patterns of civil military relations in order to prevent future authoritarian regressions. This requires, among other things, the realization of a long-term historical assessment about what have been the main features of civil military relations from Independence until the current process of democratic consolidation. This volume is the outcome of the international conference The Soldier and the State in South America, held in Leiden, The Netherlands, on 24 25 October 1997. During that academic event, a group of scholars from Europe, Latin America and the United States came together to discuss from a long-term perspective on some key aspects of civil military relations in South America, with special emphasis on the cases of Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Peru. I am especially indebted to Hans Vogel from Leiden University who co-organized the conference and with whom I very much enjoyed all the facets of this common academic project. Special thanks go also to Phil O Brien for his constant encouragement and useful comments during the entire editing process. I also want to acknowledge the generous financial support provided to this event by the Leiden University Fund (LUF), the Dutch Royal Academy of Sciences (KNAW), and the Centre for Non-Western Studies (CNWS) in Leiden. The production of the book went smoothly thanks to Alison Howson and her staff at the publishers. I also thank Keith Povey who meticulously copy-edited the book. Finally, I want to express my gratitude to the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS) at Wassenaar which provided me an excellent working place during the 1998 99 academic year, and particularly to Anne Simpson who revised the entire manuscript in search of linguistic errors. vii

Notes on the Contributors Paul Cammack is Professor of Political Science at the Department of Government, University of Manchester. He is the author of numerous articles and contributions to books on South American politics. He is also the author of Capitalism and Democracy in the Third World (1997) and co-editor of Generals in Retreat: The Crisis of Military Rule in Latin America (1985) and Third World Politics (1993). Celso Castro is researcher at the Fundação Getulio Vargas/CPDOC, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He is author of several books on the military in Brazilian history and society, including O Espírito Militar (1990) and Os Militares e a Republica (1995) and co-editor of the trilogy on the military regime (1964 85) in Brazil Visões do Golpe, Os Anos de Chumbo and A Volta aos Quartéis (1994 and 1995) and the interview Ernesto Geisel (1997). Kees Koonings is Lecturer in Development Studies at the Department of Anthropology, Utrecht University. His research has dealt with the politics of (regional) industrial development, and the political role of the military, especially in Brazil. He is the author of Industrialization, Industrialists and Regional Development in Brazil (1994) and co-editor of Societies of Fear: The Legacy of Civil War, Violence and Terror in Latin America (1999). Frederick M. Nunn is Professor of History and International Studies, and Vice Provost for International Affairs at Portland State University, USA. He has published a number of books and articles on comparative civil military relations, including The Time of the Generals: Latin American Professional Militarism in World Perspective (1992). He is the editor of the English translation of José Victorino Lastarria s Literary Memoirs (2000). George Philip is Reader in Comparative and Latin American Politics and Director of the Argentina Programme at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He has written recent articles on populism, presidentialism and democracy in Latin America, and has published many articles and contributed to several books. He is also ix

x Notes on the Contributors the author of The Rise and Fall of the Peruvian Military Radicals (1978) and The Military in South American Politics (1986). Antonius C.G.M. Robben is Professor of Anthropology at the Department of Cultural Anthropology at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. He is the author of Sons of the Sea Goddess: Economic Practice and Discursive Conflict in Brazil (1989) and co-editor of Fieldwork under Fire: Contemporary Studies in Violence and Survival (1995) and Cultures under Siege: Collective Violence and Trauma in Interdisciplinary Perspectives (1999). Francisco Rojas Aravena is Director of FLACSO-Chile and co-director of the Program Peace and Security in the Americas. He is also Professor at the Instituto de Estudios Internacionales of the Universidad de Chile and at the University of Stanford in Santiago. He is author and editor of several books, including Balance Estratégico y Medidas de Confianza Mutua (1996); Gasto Militar en América Latina: Procesos de Decisiones y Actores Claves (1994). Patricio Silva is Lecturer in Political Sociology at the Institute of Social and Cultural Studies, Leiden University, The Netherlands. His recent research has focused on democratization processes in the Southern Cone and the technocratization of the political arena in several countries in the region. He is the author of Estado, neoliberalismo y política agraria en Chile, 1973 1981 (1987) and co-editor of Designers of Development: Intellectuals and Technocrats in the Third World (1995) and The Politics of Expertise in Latin America (1998). Hans Vogel is Lecturer in Latin American History at the Department of Latin American Studies and the Department of History, Leiden University, The Netherlands. His research has been mainly focused on the nineteenth-century history of the La Plata region and the military history of South America. He is the author of Een wereld in oorlog: militaire geschiedenis in hoofdstukken (A World in War: Main Episodes of Military History, 1995) and Geschiedenis van Latijns- Amerika (A History of Latin America, 1997).