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Ecuador RECRUITMENT AND CONDITIONS OF SERVICE
According to the Constitution, all Ecuadorians are subject to
a military service obligation. In practice, conscription applied
only to males, who were liable for call-up at age nineteen for one
year of service. Only a small number of women had been recruited as
specialists in the enlisted grades; some received commissions in a
few categories, such as doctors and dentists. As of 1988, there
were approximately 1,834,000 males in the eighteen to forty-nine
age bracket, about 80,000 of whom reached the age of eligibility
each year. Analysts considered this figure ample for service needs
even though approximately 50 percent could not meet minimum
physical or educational standards.
There was little active opposition to the conscription system.
Those undergoing military service enjoyed a measure of respect. In
a country with chronic underemployment, many poorer youths improved
their educational, housing, health-care, and dietary situations by
joining the armed forces. Ambitious young men with few
opportunities in the civilian labor market might be successful
candidates for further service and training, thereby learning
valuable skills and finding an avenue for upward mobility.
Selective service boards in provincial capitals chose conscripts
and liberally granted exemptions for family reasons, such as being
the only son or the breadwinner. Students in good academic standing
received deferments.
Since the 1960s, the army had assigned many conscripts with
peasant backgrounds to the Army Agrarian Military Conscription
(Conscripción Agraria Militar del Ejército--CAME). The CAME program
sought to enable youths from rural areas--often with a minimum
education--to meet their service obligation by working in
army-operated dairy, livestock-raising, vegetable- or fruitfarming , and shrimp enterprises. The conscripts received a limited
amount of military training and were exposed to modern farming
practices that might benefit them when they returned to civilian
life. The military used CAME products directly or sold them
commercially.
Virtually all officers graduated from one of the three military
academies. In an analysis of the social origins of the officer
corps based on cadets entering the military academies between 1960
and 1966, political scientist John Samuel Fitch determined that
more than 60 percent came from the middle segment of the middle
classes
(see Middle Class
, ch. 2). Fitch assumed each cadet's class
background from his father's occupation; this group had fathers who
were mainly civil servants, military officers, teachers, and
merchants. Those of working-class or lower middle-class origins,
whose fathers were artisans, military NCOs, or workers, constituted
approximately 20 percent. Approximately 17 percent had fathers who
were members of the property-owning upper class or professionals
from the upper middle class. Fitch's research confirmed a definite
trend toward democratization of the officer corps. In 1928 and
1929, for example, more than 44 percent of entering cadets came
from the upper and upper middle classes, whereas some 55 percent
were from the middle class and none from the lower classes. The
number of sons of military officers remained constant at about 20
percent of the entering cadets, although a growing number of sons
of NCOs had qualified for the service academies since 1956.
Fitch's study found a striking pattern of recruitment to the
officer corps from the interior highlands, which had persisted in
spite of the shift of population toward the coastal provinces
(see Migration and Urbanization
, ch. 2). In 1963, when the total
population of the Sierra and Oriente barely exceeded that of the
Costa, merely 7 percent of the entering classes came from the
Costa. Guayas Province, with over 20 percent of the nation's
population, supplied less than 1 percent of the new cadets.
Strict regulations determined promotion of officers, taking
into account such factors as seniority; attendance and performance
at service schools, both in Ecuador and abroad; assignments held;
and demonstrated administrative effectiveness. At the highest
levels, boards of admirals and generals of the three services
screened officers for promotion, subject to the approval of the
president, the minister of national defense, and the chief of the
Joint Command. The president appointed the commanding officer of
each service. During the 1980s, attempts by President Febres
Cordero to circumvent the established procedure for promotion
caused serious tensions in his relations with the military.
Observers considered basic salaries for officers adequate by
comparison with civilian government employees. In 1988 a major
general received a base salary of about US$600 a month. Benefits
and allowances added at least 50 percent to this salary. In
addition to the excellent medical care and post exchange and
commissary privileges available to all military personnel, a
general officer had the use of a car and driver, gasoline, a cook,
and other allowances. Per diem allowances for travel abroad were
extremely generous. A high-ranking officer attending frequent
meetings or courses in other countries could supplement his salary
with savings from this source.
Corruption within the military reportedly was fairly
widespread. In the case of senior officers, this often took the
form of "commissions" on arms purchases. Lower-ranking officers had
fewer opportunities to benefit by improper means but might be
guilty of such minor abuses as the unauthorized use of official
equipment for personal purposes.
Most officers were subject to retirement after twenty years of
service unless they reached the rank of general. Time spent in
attendance at a military academy was included in calculating
retirement benefits. In addition to receiving a relatively high
percentage of their base pay, retired career personnel also
received severance pay that was often used to begin business
careers.
Data as of 1989
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