Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0159/01594.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 25KB | 399 lines

$Unique_ID{COW01594}
$Pretitle{351}
$Title{Honduras
Chapter 5A.   National Security}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Steve C. Ropp}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{military
armed
forces
chief
national
political
general
honduran
honduras
consuffaa}
$Date{1983}
$Log{Fort of San Fernando de Omoa*0159401.scf
}
Country:     Honduras
Book:        Honduras, A Country Study
Author:      Steve C. Ropp
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1983

Chapter 5A.   National Security

[See Fort of San Fernando de Omoa: On the western end of Honduras' North
Coast, was built by the Spanish in the eighteenth century to defend against
British invaders.]

     The 1982 Constitution of the Republic of Honduras gives the armed forces
a broad mandate to defend the national territory, maintain internal order, and
guarantee the principles of free elections and regular presidential
succession. This constitutional mandate ensures that the armed forces play a
central role not only in national defense but also in politics. Although there
was a change from military to civilian rule in 1982, the military remained the
key institution in society, formally and informally offering guidance to
civilian political leaders.

     In mid-1983 there were an estimated 19,800 armed forces personnel
organized into three service branches (army, air force, and navy) and the
national police force. The army, having 13,500 troops, was the largest,
followed by the police, with 4,500 personnel. Although the air force contained
only 1,200 people, it wielded considerable influence, owing to its historical
importance and public legitimacy won during the 1969 conflict with El
Salvador. The navy remained relatively small (600 people) but had grown
rapidly during the 1970s and early 1980s because of increased perceptions of
threats to Honduran coastal waters. Unlike many other Latin American
countries, the Honduran national police, called the Public Security Force,
remained an integral part of the armed forces.

     Honduras has traditionally been affected by regional conflict and has
frequently suffered wars fought on its soil, as well as the use of its
territory by foreign nationals waging war on neighboring countries. From this
perspective, the expanding regional crisis in which Honduras became engulfed
during the early 1980s was merely one more demonstration of the country's
geostrategic significance. The Honduran military found itself caught in the
vortex of regional strife, forced to respond to the Sandinista challenge in
Nicaragua and the guerrilla war in El Salvador. The Central American crisis
had a significant impact on the military, reinforcing the historical
processes that had strengthened the institution and its central role in
society.

Historical Background

     One of the most important observations that can be made about the Armed
Forces of Honduras (Fuerzas Armadas de Honduras) has nothing to do with their
military role per se but rather with the political and economic role that they
have historically played in society. In some Central American countries, such
as Guatemala and El Salvador, the armed forces emerged during the late
nineteenth century as an appendage of the powerful new coffee oligarchies.
Their primary function was to maintain peace or restore it to rural areas
suffering from the major dislocations that coffee cultivation produced. The
Armed Forces of Honduras were also formed to maintain peace, but it was not a
peace that had to be maintained due to massive economic dislocation. Rather,
the lack of government continuity and the desire of caudillos (political
strong men) to control the central government eventually led to the creation
of the Honduran military. This distinction concerning origins is important
because it can explain differences in contemporary military behavior. The
Honduran military never developed a strong and overriding allegiance to a
landed oligarchy or to any other single economic interest group. It could thus
eventually play a mediating role (as it did during the 1970s) between such
interest groups and the less privileged classes.

     Although there is some continuity in the political role that the armed
forces have historically performed, there have been major changes in military
organization and structure since independence was achieved in 1838. The
evolution of the armed forces took place in three stages. From 1838 until 1922
the military was an instrumental appendage of the political faction or party
in power at the time. Between 1922 and 1963 it managed to establish an
independent institutional identity (with considerable help from the United
States). After 1963 there were a number of developments that moved the armed
forces further along the road toward institutional consolidation and
organizational maturity.

The Armed Forces as Political Instrument, 1838-1922

     For the better part of a century the armed forces operated within a
chaotic political context dominated by warring factions that sought control of
the government largely for personal economic reasons. Because the nation did
not possess a single important source of wealth, generating revenues by
controlling the central government became an alternative route to personal
fame and fortune. The struggle for control of the central government was
conducted largely in an institutional vacuum. Instead of institutions, there
were factions of various ideological hues, which blindly followed their
respective caudillos. By the late nineteenth century these factions had
loosely grouped around the two newly formed political parties, the Liberal
Party of Honduras (Partido Liberal de Honduras-PLH) and the National Party of
Honduras (Partido Nacional de Honduras-PNH) (see table A).

     During this period the military as an institution did not, in fact,
exist. Rather, there were men in uniform who performed largely political
functions. Typically, a caudillo who sought control of the central government
would form a guerrilla band composed of relatives and friends and declare
himself commander in chief. Upon seizing the capital city of Tegucigalpa, the
new government would confirm members of the band in their self-designated
military ranks. Newly appointed generals and colonels would then drift back to
the provinces where they would assume high-level political positions, such as
governor, in addition to retaining their military titles. Political and
military "command structures" at the regional level were one and the same.

     During peacetime the nineteenth-century Honduran military performed both
security and political functions in the countryside. Each of the 17
departments into which the nation was divided contained a comandancia
(command headquarters), which was run by "officers" from the original
guerrilla band. A large number of military detachments also existed at the
subdepartmental level. In 1914 there were 80 local comandancias, 183
subcomandancias de pueblo, and 672 subcomandancias de aldea. While the
instability of the central government no doubt contributed to considerable
turnover at the local level, there was a continuing local military presence
to keep the peace.

     Just as importantly, local military units performed critical political
functions. This was best demonstrated by the historic role of the militia in
relation to national elections. As election time approached, governors and
their subordinates would be called back to active duty. These
officer-politicians would, in turn, call up the militia of able-bodied males
from 21 to 30 years of age. Rather than receiving instruction in the martial
arts, militiamen were given voting instructions to pass on to their families.
Failure to comply with these instructions constituted a serious breach of
military discipline.

Development of an Independent Military Identity, 1922-63

     During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Honduran military
institutions were not well developed. Rapid turnover in governments prevented
the few professional off