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El Salvador The Military
The constitutional role of the Salvadoran armed forces is
spelled out in Title Six, Chapter Eight of the Constitution. The
military is charged with maintaining a representative democratic
form of government, enforcing the no-reelection provision for the
country's president, guaranteeing freedom of suffrage, and
respecting human rights. The armed forces as an institution is
defined as "essentially apolitical" and obedient to established
civilian authority.
It should be borne in mind that such documents tend to
reflect ideals and goals for conduct, not the prevailing state of
affairs at the time of their drafting. In the late 1980s, the
Salvadoran armed forces was an evolving institution attempting to
deal simultaneously with a left-wing insurgency and the
institutionalization of a democratic form of government while
also seeking to deflect what it perceived as threats to its
internal cohesion. One such threat was the potential
investigation and possible prosecution of officers on human
rights charges, many of them connected with the prosecution of
the war against the guerrillas, although such action was rendered
less likely by the amnesty approved by the Legislative Assembly
in 1987 as well as by the political ascendancy of Arena
(see The Criminal Justice System
, ch. 5). Given its history, the
heightened importance of its role in dealing with the insurgents,
and its interest in preserving its institutional integrity, the
Salvadoran military certainly exerted political influence,
particularly in areas of policy directly related to national
security. Indeed, the armed forces was expected by all political
actors in the country to play a role in the country's affairs,
and its power and influence were accepted by all those
participating in the democratic system.
Since the political influence of the armed forces, usually
exerted through the High Command, was exercised largely behind
the scenes, it was in many ways difficult to measure. There were
indications, however, that the military was attempting to
cooperate with civilian democratic leaders. The minister of
defense and public security, General Carlos Eugenio Vides
Casanova, accompanied President Jose Napoleon Duarte Fuentes to
the October 1984 meeting with representatives of the FMLN-FDR in
La Palma
(see Left-Wing Extremism
, ch. 5). General Vides also
appeared before the Legislative Assembly a number of times at the
request of that body to testify on military issues. Both the air
force, by restricting aerial bombing, and the security forces, by
showing restraint in dealing with radical demonstrators in San
Salvador, followed directives laid down by the president
(see The Military under Democratic Rule, 1984-88
, ch. 5). Perhaps the best
evidence of military restraint under the emerging democratic
system was the fact that, as of late 1988, the High Command had
made no move to overthrow the existing government by force,
despite several reported appeals from Salvadoran political
factions to do so.
Another important development with regard to the military's
political role concerned its relationship with other actors,
particularly the elite and the political parties. By supporting a
government headed by a Christian democratic president and
assisting in the implementation of agrarian reform measures, the
armed forces demonstrated in the 1980s that their previous ties
with the elite, particularly the agrarian elite, no longer
compelled them to resist almost every form of social and
political change. The dissociation by the military from direct
institutional support of any political party--in contrast to its
virtual control of the PCN during the 1960s and 1970s--also
enhanced the armed forces' political independence.
Data as of November 1988
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