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Colombia The Military
Colombia has not had a long history of military coups.
Its
armed forces seized power from civilians only three times
in the
nation's history: in 1830, 1854, and 1953. The only
instance of
military control lasting longer than one year was the
Rojas Pinilla
dictatorship
(see The Rojas Pinilla Dictatorship
, ch. 1;
The Political Role of the Armed Forces
, ch. 5). After his
ouster in
1957, the military held power for one year. Subsequently,
the
military served as the mainstay of the political and
economic
elites. Although the Constitution does not stipulate that
the
minister of national defense should belong to the
military, army
generals have held this portfolio since the beginning of
the
National Front. The defense minister was not obliged to
tender his
resignation in a cabinet reshuffle, unless specifically
requested
to do so by the president. Specific constitutional and
legislative
provisions, however, limited the political involvement of
the
military. The traditional absence of high-ranking military
officers
from the elite also helped to explain the military's
subordination
to civil authority. Held in low regard by the elites and
expected
to be deferential to them, military officers traditionally
came
from the middle class.
Beginning in the 1960s, the armed forces attempted to
increase
their prestige and self-esteem by improving their
competence and
professionalism. The nonpartisan professional reputation
that the
military had begun to build, however, was damaged in the
1980s by
accusations of human rights abuses and narcotics-related
corruption
among officers.
In 1988 mounting violence reportedly had forced the
armed
forces to install military governors in certain
departments,
presumably with the president's concurrence. In an
unusually blunt
public statement, General Manuel Jaime Guerrero Paz,
commander
general of the military forces, stated in a radio
interview in
April 1988 that Colombia should not hold dialogues with
the
guerrilla groups and drug traffickers because of their
lack of
sincerity.
Colombian presidents occasionally disciplined members
of the
armed forces who violated the constitutional and
legislative
proscriptions against involvement in political matters. On
three
occasions--1965, 1969, and 1984--presidents removed
military
commanders who appeared to challenge civilian authority.
In 1965
President Guillermo León Valencia reluctantly dismissed
his
minister of war, General Alberto Ruiz Novoa, for his
public
criticism of the government and ruling class and his
advocacy of
"structural changes" and a more autonomous role for the
armed
forces in the socioeconomic development process. In
February 1969,
President Lleras Restrepo summarily removed the army
commander,
General Guillermo Pinzón Caicedo, for his article in a
military
journal criticizing civilian interference in the military
budget.
In early 1984, President Betancur replaced the army
commander,
Fernando Landazábal Reyes, after the general challenged
the
authority of the official peace commission to reach an
agreement
with the guerrilla organizations. Betancur reminded the
National
Security Council that the constitutional role of the armed
forces
was "nondeliberative." The military acquiesced in these
presidential actions with little or no overt negative
reaction.
Betancur angered the military, however, with his policy
of
negotiating truces with the guerrilla organizations.
Consequently,
when M-19 commandos seized the Palace of Justice in Bogotá
in early
November 1985, Betancur had too little credit left with
the
military to order it to negotiate with the terrorists. He
therefore
apparently did not object when the military took immediate
counteraction by laying siege to the building with
hundreds of
troops, backed by heavy artillery
(see Internal Security Problems
, ch. 5).
Data as of December 1988
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