|
Honduras Consolidation and Organizational Maturity, 1963-80
During the 1960s and 1970s, the armed forces underwent
further
important changes that had significant political
repercussions. The
military expanded rapidly in size from approximately 8,000
personnel in 1970 to 16,000 a decade later. Growth was
accompanied
by improved professional training and an expanded officer
corps of
academy graduates. With enlargement and organizational
complexity
came new and bigger general staffs and support units.
Change and
growth were accelerated by the defeat by El Salvador in
the 1969
"Soccer War," a defeat that drove military leaders to
improve their
conventional warfare capabilities and modernize the air
force
(see War with El Salvador
, ch. 1). Shortly after the war, for
example,
Honduras purchased sophisticated military hardware from
Israel,
including armored vehicles mounted with recoilless rifles
and a
dozen modified Super Mystère B2 fighter-bombers. The
purchase made
Honduras the first country in the region with supersonic
aircraft.
Furthermore, in 1970 military leaders took action to
prevent the
formation of a separate and independent uniformed force
under
civilian control. They incorporated the senior leadership
of the
national police, or Civil Guard (Guardia Civil) as it was
called
then, into the rapidly growing national defense system
(see Public Security Force
, this ch.).
Increased numbers of troop commands and service units
led to an
expanded professional officer corps, the members of which
demanded
a greater role in decision making. An expanding
organizational
complexity also challenged the military hierarchy to deal
with
factionalism within the officer corps, as well as
interservice
rivalry. Officers, for example, began to identify with and
ally
themselves with members of their own military academy
graduating
class, known as a promoción. Each promoción
competed
against other academy classes for privileges and
promotions--a
phenomenon that developed also in other Central American
countries.
To deal with some of these organizational problems, the
Supreme
Council of the Armed Forces (Consejo Superior de las
Fuerzas
Armadas--Consuffaa) was created in 1975. Consuffaa became
the main
consultative body in all matters of concern to the
military.
Data as of December 1993
|
