Latin American Soldiers: Armed Forces in the Region's History

193 Pages·2020·5.335 MB·English

by  John R. Bawden

LATIN AMERICAN SOLDIERS
In this accessible volume, John R. Bawden introduces readers to the study of
armed forces in Latin American history through vivid narratives about four
very different countries: Mexico, Cuba, Brazil, and Chile.
Latin America has faced many of the challenges common to postcolonial
states such as civil war, poorly defined borders, and politically fractured soci-
eties. Studying its militaries offers a powerful lens through which to understand
major events, eras, and problems. Bawden draws on stories about the men and
women who served in conventional armed forces and guerrilla armies to
examine the politics and social structure of each country, the state’s evolution,
and relationships between soldiers and the global community.
Designed as an introductory text for undergraduates, Latin American Soldiers
identifies major concepts, factors, and trends that have shaped modern Latin
America. It is an essential text for students of Latin American Studies or History
and is particularly useful for students focusing on the military, revolutions, and
politicalhistory.
John R. Bawden is an associate professor of history at the University of
Montevallo. He is the author of The Pinochet Generation: The Chilean Military in
the Twentieth Century (2016).
Latin American Tópicos
Edited by Michael LaRosa, Rhodes College
Telenovelas in Pan-Latino Context
June Carolyn Erlick
The Youngest Citizens
Amy Risley
Latin American Soldiers: Armed Forces in the Region’s History
John R. Bawden
LATIN AMERICAN
SOLDIERS
’
Armed Forces in the Region s
History
John R. Bawden
Firstpublished2020
byRoutledge
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LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Names:Bawden,JohnR.,1978-author.
Title:LatinAmerica’ssoldiers/JohnR.Bawden.
Description:Firstedition.|NewYork,NY:Routledge,[2019]|
Series:LatinAmericanTópicos|Includesindex.
Identifiers:LCCN2019015587|ISBN9781138492578(hardback)|
ISBN9781138492585(pbk.)
Subjects:LCSH:Soldiers–LatinAmerica–History.|
LatinAmerica–History,Military.
Classification:LCCF1410.5.B392019|DDC355.0098–dc23
LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2019015587
ISBN:978-1-138-49257-8(hbk)
ISBN:978-1-138-49258-5(pbk)
ISBN:978-1-351-03010-6(ebk)
TypesetinBembo
bySwales&Willis,Exeter,Devon,UK
CONTENTS
Preface vi
Acknowledgments viii
1 Introduction 1
2 Mexico 29
3 Cuba 61
4 Brazil 90
5 Chile 123
6 LatinAmericanSoldiersinGlobalPerspective 156
Conclusion 172
Index 174
PREFACE
Simón Bolívar, José de San Martín, and Toussaint Louverture are among Latin
America’s most cherished national heroes. These soldiers and statesmen evicted
European powers from the Americas and Louverture, though born a slave,
rose to prominence in revolutionary Haiti thanks to his political acumen and
battlefield triumphs. The post-independence reality, however, proved much
harsher than anyone could have imagined. From 1820 to 1870, most of Latin
America experienced civil conflict and chronic instability. Disagreements about
citizenship, the Roman Catholic Church, and whether to adopt constitutional
monarchies or republican governments divided conservative and liberal fac-
tions. The lack of political consensus was one problem while the surplus of
ambitious men with military training was another.
In most of Spanish America, charismatic chieftains called caudillos dominated
postcolonial politics. These “heroes on horseback,” as one scholar put it, cap-
tured the loyalty of local populations. They protected friends, dispensed favors,
andmirroredculturalaspectsofthesocietiesfromwhichtheycame.Intheearly
twentieth century Pancho Villa and Augusto Sandino organized armies that
challenged landholding elites in Mexico and Nicaragua, respectively. They also
defied the United States and won acclaim for doing so. Fidel Castro’s successful
insurgency in the mountains of Cuba (1957–1958), more than any other event,
cultivated the image of the heroic guerrilla fighter battling an unjust govern-
ment.Today,thevisageofCastro’sdaringcommander,Ernesto“Che”Guevara,
isoneofthemostrecognizedsymbolsofarmedrevolutionintheworld.
This is a book about warfare and military traditions in Latin American history
with a focus on four very different countries: Brazil, Mexico, Cuba, and Chile.
ThefirsttwoaccountforhalfofthepopulationinLatinAmerica–reasonenough
for study – while the latter two provide interesting points of comparison. Of
Preface vii
course, militaries do not simply respond to national emergencies or maintain
internal order, they reflect society and shape it. Soldiering has long represented
a path to social mobility in a region marked by strong inequality. Porfirio Díaz,
Fulgencio Batista, and Hugo Chávez – just to name a few – were all mixed-race
men of humble origins whose military careers made their presidencies possible.
Militariestellusaboutsocialstratificationandhighlightnationaldifferences.
Mexico and Colombia, the world’s most populous Spanish-speaking coun-
tries, did not experience military coups in the second half of the twentieth
century. Their armed forces achieved a high level of institutionalization and
refused to support would-be caudillos. Costa Rica abolished its army in 1949
and Cuban officers eat the same food as conscripts, an arrangement unheard of
elsewhere in the Americas. These facts are worth mentioning if only to illus-
trate that generalizations about Latin America usually have exceptions. Coun-
tries in the region vary with respect to race, economy, geography, and yet,
they share many qualities that make intelligible the notion of a common his-
torical experience.
During the twentieth century, Latin America’s armed forces grew more
technologically advanced, professional, and shaped by ideological divides. Anti-
communist military governments assumed power after the Cuban Revolution
and several regimes violently purged their political systems of left-wing influ-
ence. Not all Latin American officers shared the same politics, though. From
1968 to 1975, Peruvian General Juan Velasco led a government that enacted
agrarian reform and nationalized foreign companies. His program inspired
a young lieutenant named Hugo Chávez, who attended Venezuela’s military
academy from 1971 to 1975. Two decades later, Chávez launched a coup that
aimed to benefit Venezuela’s poorest citizens. He went on to show that the
caudillo tradition of charismatic leadership had not disappeared.
When armed forces exist within a stable political order, they tend to focus
on their primary mission, which is to protect the state and its people. In soci-
eties with great social and ideological divides, the military may block one pol-
itical party’s access to power, facilitate another’s, or assume control of the
political system entirely. Understanding why most of Latin America’s presidents
were generals rather than civilians as recently as 1980 requires knowledge of
traditions from the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal), nineteenth century
precedents, and the Cold War. And while armed forces have been male-
dominated institutions, women have never been far from the fighting.
This book begins by introducing the topic of war and military organization
in Latin American history. The four country-specific chapters highlight pat-
terns and invite informed comparisons while a final chapter puts Latin Ameri-
can soldiers into global perspective. Throughout, armed forces will be used to
examine the character of states and societies.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I wish to thank Tópicos editor Michael LaRosa for inviting me to write this
book and for his help along the way. During the earliest stage of research,
I benefited from a semester of sabbatical leave from the University of Monte-
vallo during which time the University of Florida provided a library travel
grant so I could make use of its Latin American and Caribbean Collection.
During the entire process, the University of Montevallo’s interlibrary coordin-
ator, Natasha O’Dell, acquired countless materials on my behalf.
Writing a book about several different countries involves stepping outside
of one’s area of specialized knowledge. I gratefully received country-specific
feedback from Ida Altman, Frank McCann, Robert Patch, Louis A. Pérez Jr.,
and William Sater. My friend and colleague Clark Hultquist generously read
and commented on most of the manuscript. To my wife Tara and daughters
Julie and Amy, thank you for keeping me happy and loved.
1
INTRODUCTION
Two centuries after the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, Muslim com-
mander Tariq ibn Ziyad landed a large force of Berber horseman on the Iber-
ian Peninsula and killed Roderic, king of the Visigoths. Tariq proceeded to
capture cities across Hispania (Roman name for the peninsula) including
Toledo, the Visigoth capital. By 720 CE, all but the northernmost reaches of
the country were occupied. These developments ensured that the people
living in Al-Andalus, or the name for lands under Muslim rule in Iberia,
would have a unique medieval experience. Mozarabic Christians spoke Arabic
and worshipped in that language. Sephardic Jews developed their own distinct-
ive culture and Muslim Berber peoples resented the ethnically dominant Arabs.
At the peak of Ibero-Islamic civilization, more than half of the peninsula’s
inhabitants were Muslim, both converts and settlers, and Córdoba, the capital
of Al-Andalus, was one of the largest cities in the world. Rich and civilized,
Córdoba’s markets, gardens, and libraries had no parallel in the Latin West.
Gold coins minted in the capital circulated in other Muslim-held cities –
Lisbon, Toledo, Seville, Granada, Valencia – and made them attractive to
Christian principalities. By 1050 CE the border between Christian and Muslim
civilization stretched from Coimbra in northern Portugal to Barcelona in the
east along a belt of no-man’s-lands. Here, Christian and Islamic armies skir-
mished, and patterns of conquest developed that would have important conse-
quences for the Americas.
Men who provided mounted military service entered the ranks of the lower
nobility (hidalgos) and municipal militias developed structures for their collect-
ive defense and offensive operation. The expansion of Castile, a Christian
kingdom in northern Spain, depended on the absorption of territory in Al-
Andalus and Castilian kings offered fueros, or legal privileges, to towns and