1 See Rouquié, Alain, The Military and the State in Latin America (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987), 350.Google Scholar

2 This is my definition, drawn from the literature, and elaborated in McSherry, J. Patrice, “The Evolution of the National Security State: The Case of Guatemala,” Socialism and Democracy 10 (1990), 121–153CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Other sources in English on this type of state include: Alves, Marian Helena Moreira, State and Opposition in Military Brazil (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1988), 6–10Google Scholar; O'Donnell, Guillermo, Schmitter, Philippe C. and Whitehead, Laurence, eds., Transitions from Authoritarian Rule: Tentative Conclusions about Uncertain Democracies (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986)Google Scholar, especially the selections by Manuel Antonio Garretón and Luciano Martins in Latin America (1989 edition); O'Donnell, Guillermo, Modernization and Bureaucratic Authoritarianism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973)Google Scholar, and “Tensions in the Bureaucratic-Authoritarian State,” in Collier, David, ed., The New Authoritarianism in Latin America (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979Google Scholar). This analysis highlights Argentina, Brazil, Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala and Uruguay, although other states such as Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Honduras and Peru share some similar traits. Traditional one-man dictatorships such as Duvalier's Haiti, Somoza's Nicaragua and Stroessner's Paraguay fall outside my definition of national security states.

3 Important contributions to the literature on national security doctrine include Comblin, José, The Church and the National Security State (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1979)Google Scholar; Guatemalan Church in Exile (IGE), Guatemala: Security, Development, and Democracy (Mexico City, April 1989Google Scholar); Landau, Saul, The Dangerous Doctrine (Boulder: Westview Press, 1988)Google Scholar; Lernoux, Penny, Cry of the People (Garden City: Doubleday, 1980Google Scholar); Pion-Berlin, David, “The National Security Doctrine, Military Threat Perception and the ‘Dirty War’ in Argentina,” Comparative Political Studies 21 (1988), 382–407CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Pion-Berlin, David and Lopez, George A., “Of Victims and Executioners: Argentine State Terror, 1975–1979,” International Studies Quarterly 35 (1991), 35CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lopez, George A., “National Security Ideology as an Impetus to State Violence and State Terror,” in Stohl, Michael and Lopez, George A., eds., Government Violence and Repression (New York: Greenwood Press, 1986), 73–95Google Scholar; and Weinstein, Martin, Uruguay: Democracy at the Crossroads (Boulder: Westview Press, 1988Google Scholar).

4 Quoted in Pion-Berlin and Lopez, “Of Victims and Executioners,” 79.

5 Moreira Alves, State and Opposition in Military Brazil, 9.

6 A number of analysts have stressed that military role expansion (or what Alfred Stepan has called “new military professionalism”) is a dangerous prelude to politicization and may lead to coups. See Stepan, Alfred, Rethinking Military Politics (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988), 13–15Google Scholar; and Welch, Claude, Civilian Control of the Military (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1976), 30–34Google Scholar. US training, especially after the Cuban revolution, promoted role expansion in the Latin American armies by focussing on internal subversion and counterinsurgency rather than external defence, and promoting civic action programmes, “military-in-development” projects, and training in economics, fiscal planning, public administration and other civilian functions. See ibid.; Lernoux, Cry of the People, especially part two on US intervention; and Miles Wolpin, Military Indoctrination and U.S. Imperialism, Occasional Paper #13, American Institute for Marxist Studies, 1973; Blaufarb, Douglas, The Counterinsurgency Era: U.S. Doctrine and Performance 1950-Present (New York: Free Press, 1977)Google Scholar; Andersen, Martin Edwin, “The Military Obstacle to Latin Democracy,” Foreign Policy 73 (Winter 1988–1989), 96–113Google Scholar; and McSherry, The Evolution of the National Security State, for a sampling of literature on US influence on Latin American militaries.

7 See O'Donnell's classic work, Modernization and Bureaucratic Authoritarianism, and his “Tensions in the Bureaucratic-Authoritarian State and the Question of Democracy,” in David Collier, ed., The New Authoritarianism in Latin America, 285–318; Pion-Berlin, David, “The Political Economy of State Repression in Argentina,” in Stohl, Michael and Lopez, David, eds., The Stale as Terrorist (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1984), 99–122Google Scholar; and Pion-Berlin and Lopez, “Of Victims and Executioners,” 63–86.

8 See, for example, Corradi, Juan, “Military Government and State Terrorism in Argentina,” in Loveman, Brian and Davies, Thomas M. Jr., eds., The Politics of AntiPolitics (2nd ed.; Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. 1989), 335–344.Google Scholar

9 For examples of the persistence of these repressive structures after the transition to civilian rule, see de los Pueblos, Tribunal Permanente. Proceso a la Impunimidad de Crímenes de Lesa Humankind en América Latina (Bogot´: Liga Internacional por los Derechos y la Liberación de los Pueblos, 1991Google Scholar); Petras, James. “Global Transformations and the Future of Socialism in Latin America,” New Political Science 18/19 (Fall/Winter 1990), 181–193CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Pinheiro, Paulo Sérgio, “The Legacy of Authoritarianism: Violence and the Limits of Democratic Transitions,”paper presented at the Latin American Studies Association, 1991.Google Scholar

10 See, for example, Timerman's, Jacobo anguished account of President Menem's 1990 pardon of his torturers, “Fear Returns to Argentina,” New York Times, January 5, 1991.Google Scholar

11 See “Brasil: Nunca Mais”—published in English as “Torture in Brazil”—an account summarizing one million pages of military files documenting torture centres, mutilation and abuse of victims and names of prisoners and their torturers. These records were secretly photocopied by human rights lawyers over a period of several years in Brazil. See also Langguth, A. J., Hidden Terrors (New York: Pantheon Books, 1978Google Scholar).

12 “Tumba clandestina con 1500 cadáveres,” El Diario/La Prensa. March 27 1991.

13 Brown, Cynthia and Goldman, Robert K., “Torture, Memory and Justice.” The Nation, March 27, 1989, 408–410Google Scholar; and International League for Human Rights (ILHR). “Human Rights in Uruguay: Will Human Rights Violators Go Free?” New York City. April 1989, 5.Google Scholar

14 ILHR, “Human Rights in Uruguay,” 6, and Christian, Shirley, “In Uruguay, A Vote for Forgiveness,” New York Times, April 8, 1989.Google Scholar

15 Bishop, Katherine, “Foreign Abductors Held to be Liable in the U.S.,” New York Times, August 26, 1988.Google Scholar

16 Neier, Aryeh, “Menem's Pardons and Purges,” New York Times, October 2, 1989.Google Scholar

17 See Fitch, J. S., “Military Professionalism, National Security, and Democracy: Lessons from the Latin American Experience,”paper prepared for the annual meeting of the Latin American Studies Association, 1989, 15Google Scholar, and Frances Hagopian and Scott Mainwaring, “Democracy in Brazil: Problems and Prospects,” World Policy Journal (Summer 1987), 492, 502–07.

18 Nash, Nathaniel C., “Chile's Leader and Army Square Off Over the Past,” New York Times, March 26, 1991Google Scholar. Some encouraging steps to combat impunity were taken in September 1991 in Chile: a court order to exhume bodies of the disappeared from clandestine cemeteries was obtained for the first time, and two high-ranking officers accused of overseeing the assassinations of Orlando Letelier (Allende's ambassador to the US, killed in Washington, D.C. in 1976) and Ronni Moffitt were arrested. See Nash, Nathaniel C., “Graves Without a Name Yielding Their Secrets,” New York Times, September 19, 1991Google Scholar, and “Chile Seizes Two Policemen in Letelier Case,” New York Times, September 24, 1991.

19 Margaret Crahan, presentation at Columbia University, September 1990. Hereafter cited as Columbia presentation.

20 Ibid.

21 Reuters, , “Chile Details Over 2000 Slayings Under Pinochet,” New York Times, March 6, 1990Google Scholar, and Nash, “Graves Without a Name Yielding Their Secrets.”

22 “El ex dictador Videla comienza a plantear exigéncias a Menem,” El DiariolLa Prensa, January 1, 1991.

23 International League for Human Rights, “Argentina: The Human Rights Record,” New York City, March 1990, 32.Google Scholar

24 See Schneider, Joe, “Argentina: The Enigma of La Tablada.” NACLA Report on the Americas, Vol. 23, No. 3, September 1989, 9–13CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Munck, Ronaldo, Latin America: Transitions to Democracy (London: Zed Books, 1989), 103.Google Scholar

25 ILHR, “Argentina,” 12–14.

26 “Solanas ratifica que Menem “traiciono” a sus electores.” El Diario/La Prensa, May 23, 1991, and “Menem acusa a los nazis,” El Diario/La Prensa. May 24. 1991.

27 Noticias de Guatemala, February 1991.

28 Enfoprensa, Year 9, No. 4123, February 19–25, 1991.

29 “Jesuitas buscan a los autores intelectuales,” El Diario/La Prensa, October 1, 1991; Arnson, Cynthia J., “Bizarre Justice in El Salvador,” New York Times, October 3, 1991Google Scholar; and “El Salvador at the Crossroads,” editorial in El Diario/La Prensa, October 4, 1991.

30 Christian, Shirley, “Colonel in Jesuit Deaths in El Salvador,” New York Times, September 30, 1991.Google Scholar

31 Kavanagh, Jean, “Salvador Death Squads Threaten Leftist Leaders.” The Globe and Mail, January 14, 1991.Google Scholar

32 Ibid.

33 Editorial in The Nation, “Closing the Books,” February 28, 1987.

34 “Firmenich inicia los tr´mites para salir del pais,” El Diario/La Prensa, January 3, 1991.

35 “Report of the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, Question of the Human Rights of All Persons Subjected to Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment/Question of Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances,” E/CN.4/1990/13, January 24, 1990.

36 Note the worldwide outrage generated by Lithuania's decision to pardon its fascist war criminals in September 1991. See Binder, David, “U.S. Expects Lithuania Not to Erase War Crimes,” New York Times, September 6, 1991Google Scholar, and Alter, Jonathan and Meyer, Michael, “An Unpardonable Amnesty,” Newsweek, September 16, 1991.Google Scholar

37 See, for example, Goldman, Robert, “Amnesty Laws, International Law, and the American Convention on Human Rights,” The Law Group Docket (Summer 1989Google Scholar); Roht-Arriaza, Naomi, “State Responsibility to Investigate and Prosecute Gross Human Rights Violations in International Law,” California Law Review 78 (1990), 449–512CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Rogers, George C., “Argentina's Obligation to Prosecute Military Officials for Torture,” Columbia Human Rights Law Review 20 (1989), 259–308Google Scholar; and Louis Joinet, “Study on Amnesty Laws and Their Role in the Safeguard and Promotion of Human Rights,” special report to the UN Commission on Human Rights, E/ CN.4/Sub.2/1985/16, June 21, 1985.

38 Arturo Valenzuela, address at Columbia University, September 28, 1990. Hereafter cited as Columbia address.

39 In September 1991, as bodies packed two per coffin were exhumed from clandestine cemeteries, Pinochet outraged Chileans by commenting “How economical!” and congratulating “the seekers of cadavers.” He also demanded general pardons for violators of human rights, arguing it was “time to stop the party” and “not reopen the wound” (“Gobierno califica de ‘crueles’ comentarios de Pinochet sobre ejecutdaos politicos,” El Diario/La Prensa [September 4, 1991; “Pinochet pide indultar violadores de DH,” Ed Diario/La Prensa, September 16, 1991]).

40 Kline, Chris, “Menem Defends Amnesty,” The Times of the Americas, October 4, 1989Google Scholar; Zagorski, Paul W. gives the 95 per cent figure in the manuscript for his Democracy vs. National Security: Civil-Military Relations in Latin America (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1992).Google Scholar

41 Reuters, , “Argentine Defends Release of ‘Dirty War’ Leaders,” New York Times, December 31, 1990.Google Scholar

42 Maria Helena Moreira Alves, presentation at the Graduate School, City University of New York, February 20, 1990. Hereafter cited as CUNY presentation. She called the PT the strongest party because of its millions of members and disciplined grassroots organization. Collor's victory was at least in part the result not of superior organization, but superior access to resources, particularly O Globo television, in a nation where millions of people cannot read. Election percentages from Brooke, James, “Bad Times, Bold Plans for Brazil,” New York Times, January 7, 1990.Google Scholar

43 Alves, Moreira, CUNY presentation, and James Brooke, “Brazil Will Vote with Eye on Army,” New York Times, December 15, 1991.Google Scholar

44 Uhlig, Mark A., “Salvadorans in Accord on Army Curbs,” New York Times, April 29, 1991Google Scholar, and AP, , “Salvadoran Legislature Passes Reforms in Time,” New York Times, April 30, 1991.Google Scholar

45 Christian, Shirley, “Salvadoran Chief and Rebels Reach Broad Agreement,” New York Times, September 26, 1991.Google Scholar

46 NGO Coalition Against Impunity Newsletter66 #3, July 1991.

47 Valenzuela, Columbia address.

48 Crahan, Columbia presentation.

49 A recent example is the case of Haiti, where President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was elected by 65 per cent in early 1991, only to be overthrown by the military, with the support of the elites, in September 1991. See also Stephens, Evelyne Huber, “Democracy in Latin America,” Latin American Research Review 25 (1990), 157–176.Google Scholar

50 This insight was expressed by Yoshihiro Tsurumi, Professor of International Business at City University of New York, in a presentation entitled “New Political and Economic Orders in the World,” part of the Ralph Bunche Institute Seminar Series, on October 16, 1991.

51 See Heilbroner, Robert for a cogent analysis of capitalist democracy (The Nature and Logic of Capitalism [New York: W. W. Norton, 1985]).Google Scholar

52 Peeler, John, Latin American Democracies (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1985), 153.Google Scholar

53 Paraphrased from Peter Winn's presentation at the Latin American Studies Association conference, Washington, D.C., April 1991. Special thanks to Diane Hawney for her notes on the panel, “Chile's Return to Democracy: The First Year,” organized by Ivan Jaksic.

54 O'Donnell, Schmitter and Whitehead, Transitions from Authoritarian Rule, 30.

55 Stephens, “Democracy in Latin America,” 169.

56 Varas, Augusto, “Democratization and Military Reform in Argentina,” in Varas, Augusto, ed., Democracy Under Siege (New York: Greenwood Press, 1989), 47–64.Google Scholar

57 Hite, Katherine Roberts, presentation in panel entitled “Chile: After the Transition,”organized by Kenneth P. Erickson for the annual meeting of the New England Council on Latin American Studies,October 1991.Google Scholar

58 “En América Latina mueren de hambre 700,000 personas por año,” El Diario/La Prensa, October 7, 1990.