Ecuador ARMED FORCES
Figure 17. Organization of National Security, 1989
The Constitution of 1979 defines the armed forces as a
nondeliberative body and an instrument of civil authority--an
inaccurate reflection of the true civil-military relationship in
Ecuador. According to the Constitution, the president is the
commander in chief of the armed forces and the only one authorized
to grant military ranks. The mission of the Public Forces (the
armed forces and the National Police) is to preserve national
sovereignty, to defend the integrity and independence of the
republic, and to guarantee its legal order. The Constitution
further enjoins the Public Forces, in a manner to be determined by
law, to lend their cooperation in national economic and social
development.
National Security Act Number 275 of 1979 authorized the
president to mobilize forces during threats of aggression and to
declare a state of national emergency at times of imminent
aggression, major disturbances, and domestic disasters. This law
also established the NSC, chaired by the president, to make
recommendations on, and supervise execution of, national security
policies. NSC members included the president of the National
Congress; the president of the Supreme Court of Justice; the chairs
of the National Development Council and the Monetary Board; the
ministers of foreign relations, national defense, government and
justice, and finance and credit; and the chief of the Joint
Command.
The Secretariat General, the NSC's operational arm, coordinated
and helped shape national security planning. Secretariat personnel
primarily consisted of active-duty or retired officers. Analysts
considered it to be a subordinate arm of the Joint Command, whose
chief nominated the head of the secretariat, ordinarily an army
general. The secretariat directly supervised the National
Directorate of Mobilization, the National Directorate of Civil
Defense, the Institute of Higher National Studies, and the National
Directorate of Intelligence. Although the latter body was designed
to coordinate all intelligence activities, its head had a lower
rank than the chief of army intelligence.
The Joint Command, consisting of its chief and chief of staff
of the Joint Command as well as the commanders of the three service
branches, also directly advised the president. The Joint Command
had its own staff organized into functional departments. Each of
the three services had staffs organized along similar lines
(see
fig. 17). The minister of national defense was normally a senior
active-duty or retired officer. His influence on national defense
policy generally depended on his rank relative to the chief of the
Joint Command and his personal relationship to the president.
All retired career personnel and all conscripts had reserve
status until the age of fifty. The armed forces maintained a
skeleton reserve organization at the national level, directly under
the Ministry of National Defense, as well as cadre organizations
staffed by retired officers and NCOs in various areas of the
country. Training exercises were not generally held, but former
conscripts assigned to reserve units could expect to be called up
for annual weekend musters.
Data as of 1989
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