Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0282/02821.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 23KB | 390 lines

$Unique_ID{COW02821}
$Pretitle{356}
$Title{Paraguay
Chapter 5B.   Armed Forces Organization, Training, and Equipment}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Melinda W. Cooke}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{army
military
air
united
infantry
naval
three
first
personnel
training}
$Date{1987}
$Log{Figure 8.*0282101.scf
Figure 9.*0282102.scf
}
Country:     Paraguay
Book:        Paraguay, A Country Study
Author:      Melinda W. Cooke
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1987

Chapter 5B.   Armed Forces Organization, Training, and Equipment

[See Figure 8.: Officer Ranks and Insignia, 1988.]

[See Figure 9.: Enlisted Ranks and Insignia, 1988.]

     Article 180 of the Constitution names the president as commander in chief
of the armed forces and provides that actual command may be delegated to a
general officer. As of late 1988, however, President Stroessner had not
exercised this option, but rather had retained direct command over the armed
forces since 1954.

     The president was assisted by the minister of national defense, who was
by tradition an active-duty or retired army general officer. The minister of
national defense was not in the direct chain of command, and the ministry's
duties were limited to administrative matters, including finance, military
justice, and inspection (see fig. 10). The ministry also had responsibility
for defense industries, civil aviation, and the National War College.

     The president exercised command through the armed forces general staff,
the chief of which was always an army general officer. The general staff
office had sections that handled and coordinated matters concerning the army,
the navy, and the air force.

     The Presidential Escort Regiment also came under the direct command of
the president. Personnel assigned to this elite unit numbered some 1,500 in
1988, all of whom were screened for personal loyalty to the president. The
unit's headquarters and assets were located in the capital. Administratively
part of the army, the regiment was primarily an infantry element, but was also
equipped with a small motorized police unit. It was assigned to protect public
officials, including the president.

     Below the chief of the armed forces general staff were the commanders of
the army, navy, and air force. These three commanded all tactical and support
units of their respective service. Each service had its own staff made up of
the usual sections: personnel, intelligence, operations, and logistics.

     The nation was divided geographically into six military regions. The
first military region had its headquarters at Asuncion and covered the
Central, Cordillera, and Paraguari departments (see fig. 1). Within it were
located the headquarters of all three services, the Presidential Escort
Regiment, and most training establishments and combat support units. The bulk
of naval and air force assets were also located there, as were historically
powerful cavalry and infantry divisions and artillery battalions. The second
military region, headquartered at Villarrica, comprised the departments of
Guaira, Caazapa, and Itapua. The third, headquartered at San Juan Bautista,
covered the Neembucu and Misiones departments. The fourth military region
included the Amambay, San Pedro, and Concepcion departments and was
headquartered at Concepcion. The fifth had its headquarters at Puerto
Presidente Stroessner and covered the Caaguazu, Alto Parana, and Canendiy
departments. The sixth military region, headquartered at Mariscal
Estigarribia, encompassed the departments of Presidente Hayes, Boqueron, Nueva
Asuncion, Chaco, and Alto Paraguay.

     The armed forces had an extensive training program for both officers and
NCOs. The senior school for officers of all three branches was the National
War College, which was run by the Ministry of National Defense. Established in
1968, it offered courses designed to prepare officers for command of larger
units. The curricula also included the study of political, social, economic,
and military problems of national importance. Located in Asuncion, the
National War College also admitted senior civil servants.

     Two army-run establishments also trained officers from all three
branches. The first was the Command and Staff School at Asuncion. Long-held
plans to establish a separate naval command and staff school continued to be
frustrated by financial constraints as of 1988. The army also ran the
Francisco Lopez Military College, the nation's triservice military academy.
The academy offered a four-year program of military studies and graduated
commissioned officers. Entrance to the academy was by examination and, because
of the opportunities available to military officers, competition for
acceptance was keen. Many cadets attended a four-year military preparatory
school, the Liceo Militar, before matriculating to the academy.

     Reserve officers of all three services were trained at the army's Armed
Forces Officer Training School. The army also ran the Military Instruction
Center for Reserve Officer Training, where military personnel from all three
branches, as well as civilian officials, received instruction in internal
security and public-order issues.

     Because most of the lower ranks were filled by two-year conscripts, the
necessity for a highly trained cadre of career NCOs was well recognized. Most
NCOs were trained primarily in their respective service, although specialists
in a few fields, including medicine, studied at triservice schools.

     Conscripts, who were trained in their respective service, received much
of their basic instruction in Guarani, the language of the indigenous Guaran
Indians (see Indians, ch. 2). About 95 percent of the nation's population was
of mixed Guarani and Spanish descent, and an estimated 90 percent of the
population spoke Guarani. The military's use of the language was believed to
have strategic value because during the Chaco War, the Bolivian military could
not understand messages sent in Guarani.

     Since the mid-1950s, the armed forces establishment has been most
strongly influenced by Brazil and Argentina, both of which maintained military
missions in the nation and supplied most of the country's military equipment.
The United States also maintained a military attache in Asuncion, but United
States military influence was limited. During the 1980s, United States
military assistance was confined to grants under the International Military
Education and Training program, under which Paraguayan officers studied in
various United States military schools. Paraguayan military officers also
regularly attended the Inter-American Defense College in Washington, D.C.
During the 1980s, Paraguay purchased a small quantity of military equipment
from the United States under the Foreign Military Sales program. This materiel
consisted principally of communications equipment and spare parts intended to
be used for disaster relief, search and rescue, and the interdiction of
narcotics traffic.

     Paraguay joined the Inter-American Defense Board in 1942, which
maintained a headquarters and staff in Washington, D.C., and acted as a
military advisory group to the Organization of American States, of which
Paraguay was also a member. The nation also joined with the United States and
twenty other Latin American nations in 1945 to sign the Act of Chapultepec, in
which each agreed to consult on any aggression against a cosignator. In 1948
Paraguay became a signatory to the Inter- American Treaty of Reciprocal
Assistance (Rio Treaty), in which the United States and other Latin American
and Caribbean countries committed themselves to work toward the peaceful
settlement of disputes and collective self-defense in the Americas. Paraguay
was also a signatory to the 1967 Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons
in Latin America (Tlatelolco Treaty). In 1970 it signed the Treaty on the Non-
Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and in 1975 accepted the Biological Weapons
Convention, which prohibits th