Chapter Four: Preserving the illusion: managing conflict in Latin America

Abstract

Latin American countries embraced liberal democracy as the antidote to the past ills of military dictatorships, human-rights abuses and extreme poverty. Yet, more than twenty years on, states are still embroiled in armed combat with rebels who export their violence and traffic drugs across borders, threatening to draw neighbouring states into conflict with one another. Throughout the region, there is a tendency to supplement diplomatic action with military posturing. As ideological rivalries reassert themselves and competition for resources increases, so does the risk that political confrontation may once again get out of hand and destabilise regional relations.

The regional security architecture is not well-suited to controlling these risks, and neither the US nor rising power Brazil is playing the role of regional mediator. Though few incidents have escalated into war over the last two decades, the shifting regional power balance, together with a rise in authoritarian government and growth in defence spending, give cause for concern. This Adelphi analyses the sources of inter-state conflict in Latin America and the potential policy options to tackle the region's cycle of instability.

Notes

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Ibid., p. 16.

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The Military Balance 2012, p. 367; Samantha Pearson, ‘Brazil To Spend $6bn on Border Controls – Report’, Reuters, 9 January 2011.

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See Flemes and Costa Vaz, ‘Security Policies of India, Brazil and South Africa’.

Fernando ‘Nunão’ De Martini, ‘Paraguai Tenta Mobilizar MST Contra Planalto’, Forças Terrestres, 9 January 2009, http://www.forte.jor.br/2009/01/09/paraguai-tentamobilizar-mst-contra-planalto/.

Arnson and Sotero, Brazil As a Regional Power, pp. 3–4.

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The Rio Group was created in 1986 out of the Contadora and Contadora Support Group that had been mediating the US and Nicaragua conflict. The group remained active beyond that issue and today includes all the Latin American states. The US and Canada are not members. It has been the incubator for the new Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC by its Spanish name).

OAS, ‘Inter-American Democratic Charter’, 11 September 2001, http://www.oas.org/charter/docs/resolution1_en_p4.htm; see also Allan R. Brewer-Carías, Dismantling Democracy in Venezuela: The Chávez Authoritarian Experiment (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010)

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‘UNASUR Agrees to Boost Defense Expenditure Transparency’, MercoPress, 10 May 2010.

‘South American Defense Ministers Discuss Regional Security Issues in Lima’, NTN24 News.Com, 11 November 2011, http://www.ntn24.com/news/news/south-americandefense-ministers-discuss-regionalsecurity-issues-lima.

For a discussion of press issues, see Committee to Protect Journalists, http://www.cpj.org/americas/2011/; and Roy Greenslade, ‘Press Freedom Fears as Ecuador President Rages Against the Media He Doesn't Control’, Greenslade Blog, 9 November 2011, http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2011/nov/09/press-freedom-ecuador.

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Marcelo Monzón, ‘Guatemala: Journalism Under Pressure’, Opendemocracy.net, 25 September 2005, http://www.opendemocracy.net/media-journalismwar/guatemala_2865.jsp.

Manuel Orozco, ‘Conflictos Fronterizos en América Central: Tendencias Pasadas y Sucesos Actuales’, in Jorge Domínguez (ed.), Conflictos Territoriales y Democracia en América Latina (Argentina: Siglo Veintiuno, 2003), pp. 144–6.

Josette Altmann Borbón, ‘ALBA: From integration alternative to political and ideological Alliance’, in Canadian Foundation for the Americas (FOCAL), Latin American Multilateralism: New Directions (Ottawa: FOCAL, September 2010), p. 29, http://www.iadb.org/intal/intalcdi/PE/2010/06396.pdf.