ARGENTINA: Military’s Subordination to Civilian Power Complete

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Dec 8 1999 (IPS) - When Argentine President Carlos Menem steps down Friday to his successor, Fernando de la Rúa, after 10 years in office, the transition to democracy that began in 1983 and has entailed a substantial transformation of the armed forces, will be considered complete.

The image of now elderly former officers who continue to be summoned by the courts to answer for human rights violations committed during the 1976-83 military dictatorship are a ballast from the past. Society has found its own ways of ostracising them, although due to Menem’s 1990 presidential pardon they did not have to spend much time – or any at all, in some cases – in prison.

The armed forces have lost their powerful position in Argentine society, while accepting a drastic reduction in defence spending and subordinating themselves to civilian government to a greater extent than in any other country in the region, says local expert in military affairs, Rosendo Fraga.

That transformation has made it possible to say that the transition to democracy that began under president Raúl Alfonsín in 1983 has concluded, he adds.

Alfonsín squashed two military uprisings, and Menem cracked down on another, at the start of his first term in 1990. But the leader of the aborted rebellion, Mohamed Alí Seineldín, was thrown behind bars, where he remains today, and that was that.

Argentina suffered the most brutal dictatorship in the region. In seven years, the military abducted, tortured and “disappeared” at least 10,000 people, according to official figures.

But local human rights groups, born basically of the struggle waged against the de facto regime by families of the victims, put the number of disappeared at around 30,000.

Besides the brutal crackdown on real or supposed opponents, the dictatorship’s blunders, the biggest of which was the failed 1982 attempt to recover the Malvinas/Falkland islands from Britain, badly damaged the military’s image.

US historian Robert Potash, an expert in Argentine military affairs, points to big differences between today’s army and that of a decade ago.

Officers today are trained differently, in an army that is smaller, and has a much more limited budget and greatly reduced privileges and power, says Potash, who describes the enormous cultural changes seen in the new generations of cadets.

Analysts consider a 1995 speech by army chief General Martín Balza the watershed in the transformation of the armed forces.

In what was received as a “mea culpa”, read out before TV cameras by the army chief – who retires Friday after eight years in the post – Balza stated that “the end never justifies the means,” and that no matter how destructive the terrorism, it must be fought “with the power that arises from the legal order.”

He went on to say that a member of the military “only owes obedience to legitimate orders given by legitimate authorities,” and that whoever follows an immoral order is guilty of misconduct.

That new philosophy now underlies officer training programmes. And under Balza – who has received repeated proposals by the governing Justice (Peronist) Party to run for elected posts – the reforms have moved ahead smoothly.

The army chief ordered changes in the curriculum studied by cadets, in which the strictly military content was reduced to a mere 15 percent. Today, those studying to become commissioned officers take parallel courses in business administration or the economy.

During Balza’s stint as army chief – the longest in the history of the Argentine army – compulsory military service was abolished, women were admitted to officers’ training school, and it was decreed that no one was to be discriminated against on the basis of their political views, religious creed or sexual preference.

Fascism, says Balza, had become deeply rooted in the Argentine army, and homosexuals and Jews were barred from entering officers’ training school.

Argentine military contingents joined international peacekeeping forces in places like Cyprus, Croatia, Kuwait and the Western Sahara.

Argentine officers were also encouraged to leave aside their distrust and competition with the armed forces of neighbouring countries as civilian governments in the region overcame the last lingering border disputes, and forged closer ties and moved towards economic, political and social integration.

Joint military manuevres were held with the armed forces of Brazil, Chile and Uruguay, and are now being planned with Britain.

The annual defence budget was slashed from five billion dollars at the beginning of the decade to three billion, forcing non- commissioned officers and officers to take second jobs.

The number of troops, meanwhile, shrank to just over 70,000, from more than 160,000 at the time of the Malvinas/Falklands war. All three branches of the armed forces were reduced in size.

Some officers turned to politics, but not always those who had the greatest respect for democracy.

Former general Antonio Bussi, accused of serious rights violations, was elected governor of the northern province of Tucumán and as parliamentary deputy. And Aldo Rico, the leader of an uprising against Alfonsín, became parliamentary deputy, and has now been designated minister of security for the province of Buenos Aires, the country’s largest province.

Another far-reaching reform entailed the naming of the president as commander-in-chief of the armed forces, which means the three branches are now ultimately subordinated to a civilian, through the minister of defence.

And that subordination does not appear to be limited to the books. Balza has systematically refused to respond to questions he considers political in nature. “I am not going to talk about politics while I’m in the army,” said the general this week.

Balza, about to step down as army chief, said he would dedicate his time to writing his memoirs. But many believe his popularity and his image as an honest man could eventually lead him into politics.

That would bring full circle the transformation of a society that two decades ago was living under the shadow of the permanent threat of violent incursions by the military in civilian life, but which today is about to witness the inauguration of a fourth consecutive democratically-elected government.