Domestic military missions in Latin America

What is it about?

What are the implications of the military's involvement in domestic missions? Community development, border control, fighting organized crime and drug trafficking, together with other domestic tasks, diminish the quality of democracy in the long term. This article presents the case of Latin America to show how the military's domestic involvement has perpetuated democratic deficits.

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Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash

Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Our findings show that the continued involvement of the military in domestic missions has at least 4 negative effects for the quality of democracy: 1. It challenges the rule of law. 2. It shielded the armed forces from modernising reforms, including reducing their size. 3. It has prevented the development of civilian capacities to find solutions to internal problems. 4. It worked to foster undemocratic tendencies in that it undermined the legitimacy of civilian authorities.