As with everything else I've read of O'Donnell, I found his piece compelling, meticulous and very insightful. There was so much beneath the surface of Latin American regimes during that period that simplistic and definitive characterization often fall short of capturing the realities and complexities of what was actually going on and the catalysts of their formation. As a quick sidenote, it has been argued that Pinochet's military junta displayed many democratic tendencies as a result of the interrelations among the leaders of the Navy, Air Force, Army and Police Force; a series of checks and balances arose as the leaders vied for power and influence within the Junta.
I found it interesting how the socioeconomic circumstances within Argentina had the effect of cleaving society in two according to their political affiliations and played such a prominent role in instigating the demise of presidential authority. Among the military commanders, the rationale for political intervention gradually superseded all other courses of action as the notion of economic development became synonymous with national security. General Ongania's quote on pg. 405 is representative of this. Once they were in power however, the pressure to save face and not deteriorate as the country's "last hope", was great enough to immediately change the notion of what were acceptable levels of involvement in civil society, which just happened to cascade seemingly overnight into sinister levels of repression and human rights abuse.
In hindsight we see the global ramifications of the institutionalized violence that spread through Latin American throughout that period. Would other nations now rally behind international rights agreements and intervene to uphold the global precedents on behalf of another nation of innocent citizens? Clearly the words, the very essence of "nunca mas", has been quickly forgotten and quietened in the human voice in certain parts of the globe, as can be seen by the situation in Darfour, following eerily in the wake of Rwanda. Let's hope that the military in the southern cone of Latin America strives to segregate themselves from national politics.
last301
I found it interesting how the socioeconomic circumstances within Argentina had the effect of cleaving society in two according to their political affiliations and played such a prominent role in instigating the demise of presidential authority. Among the military commanders, the rationale for political intervention gradually superseded all other courses of action as the notion of economic development became synonymous with national security. General Ongania's quote on pg. 405 is representative of this. Once they were in power however, the pressure to save face and not deteriorate as the country's "last hope", was great enough to immediately change the notion of what were acceptable levels of involvement in civil society, which just happened to cascade seemingly overnight into sinister levels of repression and human rights abuse.
In hindsight we see the global ramifications of the institutionalized violence that spread through Latin American throughout that period. Would other nations now rally behind international rights agreements and intervene to uphold the global precedents on behalf of another nation of innocent citizens? Clearly the words, the very essence of "nunca mas", has been quickly forgotten and quietened in the human voice in certain parts of the globe, as can be seen by the situation in Darfour, following eerily in the wake of Rwanda. Let's hope that the military in the southern cone of Latin America strives to segregate themselves from national politics.
last301
posted by Spencer at 10:30 PM
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