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Peru Military Classes
The militarily connected population has developed into
a
significant national sector. Playing an ever more
important
social role, los militares (the military) have, in
effect,
emerged as a subsociety, with special attributes and
arrangements
that set them apart from other social classes as a
powerful
special interest elite, with its own allegiances and
identity,
sense of mission, and objectives developed in coherent,
relatively independent ways from other national policy and
planning processes. No other groups within the population,
with
the possible exception of the cabals of the oligarchy, can
be so
characterized.
The people involved in ancillary activities--military
industries, medical services, civilian business managers
and
employees, service and maintenance personnel, in addition
to
members of family networks who benefit from having one of
their
number in the armed forces--probably approach 1 million,
or 4
percent of the nation's population. The military domain
commands
20 percent of central government expenditures, 5 percent
more
than education, the next largest share of the national
budget,
and much more than health services, which claimed 5.8
percent in
1988. Indeed, Peru's military expenditures of US$106 per
capita
exceeded three times the average expenditure per capita of
all
other South American nations in 1988. Over a twenty-year
period,
the military budget gained 38 percent in its share of the
national budget, whereas education dropped by 35 percent
and
health gained by less than 5 percent since 1972.
Professionalization has involved areas that few have
analyzed
but that constitute the major reward system for
professional
career officers and noncommissioned personnel. These are
the
elaborate infrastructure and exclusive services for
personnel and
their families, including beach resorts and hotels,
consumer
discount cooperatives, casinos and clubs, schools of
several
types and levels, hospitals and general medical services,
insurance coverages, recreational facilities, and a
variety of
other programs. In addition, there are extensive housing
subdivisions in Lima for the officer corps and other
military
employees, named for the military branches that they
serve. There
are special retirement provisions and a plethora of other
benefits for members of military that are unavailable to
others
in the society at large.
The sphere of military activities includes an extremely
active internal social calendar of commemorative events
that have
the function of bonding the members and their families
more
tightly to group interests. In sum, the Peruvian military
constitutes a virtually encapsulated society within the
larger
one and competes with advantage for the public funds
vis-à-vis
other interests by operating its own industries,
sponsoring its
own research and advanced study, and engaging in
civic-action
programs that often replicate the assigned work of
civilian
institutions, such as the Ministry of Agriculture.
Consequently,
the ubiquitous and well-established institutions of
military
society pervade Peruvian life at every turn and are
regarded with
skepticism by many who see them as depriving civilian
needs of
essential resources
(see
The Armed Forces in Society and Politics
, ch. 5).
Data as of September 1992
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