Democratic Control over Defence Policies in Latin America

Latin America’s political history has traditionally been marked by the evolution of civil–military relations. It is precisely the link between generals and politics that has, in most cases, determined the political course of Latin American nations. In the mid-1980s, after the so-called “third wave of democratisation”, Latin American political systems began a gradual path towards democratic functioning of institutions. But it was from the mid-1990s onward, with the end of the Cold War and when peacemaking processes in Central America were at an advanced stage, that the idea that defence policies should be subject to democratic control also gained ground in the region. Considering what has been briefly outlined, the aim of this chapter is to examine the relationship between democratically elected institutions and the armed forces in some Latin American countries, dealing specifically with congresses and their powers of control over the armed forces and defence ministries, and thus indirectly over the executive branch. In particular, the chapter will focus on a little-addressed topic in Latin American constitutional and comparative law, that is, the composition and powers of some legislative defence commissions, which will be selected because they represent emblematic and significant cases of the role of democratic control over defence policies.