National security doctrine

The National Security Doctrine is a concept used to define certain foreign policy actions of the United States, tending to make the armed forces of Latin American countries modify their mission to dedicate themselves exclusively to guarantee internal order, under the pretext of changing thoughts in the context of the Cold War, as well as promoting cooperation between these military dictatorships.

Features

Although it was never officially called the Doctrine, the designation is widely recognized in many academic and governmental quarters, and its existence is demonstrable based on the interpretation of declassified reports by the US government, the CIA, and the memorandum of the National Security Council.

The fact that it has never been officially drafted or declared is explained by understanding it as a military doctrine. The definition of National Security Doctrine requires recognizing it within the framework of the military doctrines. Juan Pablo Angelone, professor at the National University of Rosario (Argentina):

The military doctrines constitute, in essence, sets of non-written propositions, which constitute a more or less coherent corpus, oriented towards the institutional action of the armed forces in what is the manifest principal function of them: to make war. The military doctrines thus characterize the essential forms of war; they identify specific enemies; they analyze the international context in order to detect allies and adversaries in accordance with the conflict scenarios that are handled; they evaluate the quality and quantity of the material and human resources available in the event of an outbreak of hostilities; etc.

The so-called Doctrine was a product of Cold War thinking, which kept the world divided into two antagonistic camps. It was devised by the successive governments of the United States and put into practice through the training of the different Latin American armies at the School of the Americas in Panama. There, for almost forty years, military envoys from different Latin American countries were instructed in counterinsurgency techniques: interrogation through torture, infiltration, intelligence, kidnappings and disappearances of political opponents, military combat, psychological warfare. Even counting on torture and counterinsurgency manuals from the CIA for this purpose.

According to this Doctrine, any threat to the US National Security originating anywhere in the world constituted an action in favor of the US enemy power, the USSR. There was a conviction, in certain areas of the US government, that the communist bloc (emerged after World War II) had as its main objective to become the only world power and reorganize society through the expansion of Soviet communism. The so-called doctrine considers the citizens of a country as possible threats to security.

The defenders of the Doctrine officially maintain that its application was necessary during the cold war to stop the advance of communism. According to this Doctrine, communism would end individual freedoms and rights in the country where it was established, and the violations of DD. H H. necessary to prevent the action or establishment of communism, were seen as collateral damage or a minor sacrifice. Defenders of the Doctrine also argue that it is incorrect to call it a "doctrine" since it was never officially drafted, and therefore they maintain that it is only understood as a doctrine from a position adverse to US international policy. Likewise, according to the School of the Americas, its founding objective was to emphasize democracy and human rights.

Since the end of the Vietnam War, the US reconsidered its strategy with the aim of more directly involving the armies of the Latin American nations themselves in hemispheric defense, committing to a lesser extent the armed forces of the USA, in what became known as the Nixon Doctrine. The US tried to protect its interests in Latin America by installing dictatorial governments. But with the influence of the Cuban revolution of 1959 and the growth of communist or socialist thought among Latin American students and workers, for the first time the idea arose that the people of the country itself could constitute a threat to national security.

Using the National Security Doctrine, the United States manages to unify the actions of the different Latin American dictatorships, such as the Augusto Pinochet in Chile (1973-1990), Alfredo Stroessner in Paraguay (1954-1989), the National Reorganization Process in Argentina (1976-1983), Juan María Bordaberry in Uruguay (1973-1985), General Hugo Banzer in Bolivia (1971-1978), the Somoza dynasty in Nicaragua, of the governments of El Salvador during its bloodiest years of civil war, and of the Colombian government of Julio César Turbay Ayala with its famous "Security Statute" (1978-1982). The repressive action of all these governments was unified through the so-called Condor Plan in South America, and Operation Charlie in Central America. It is convenient to add that in Argentina, one of the precursors of the doctrine of national security was the CONINTES plan, sanctioned and put into practice during the government of Arturo Frondizi in 1958. The acronym meant "INTERNAL COMMOTION OF THE STATE", and consisted of make the Armed and security Forces available for internal repression, allowing the militarization of large urban centers and allowing raids and arrests of opposition leaders.

The counterinsurgency techniques applied with the National Security Doctrine have two aspects. The first of American origin called the Hemispheric Security Doctrine, taught at the School of the Americas, and the second of French origin, called the Counterinsurgency Doctrine, created from the lesson learned by General D'Allegret after the defeats in the Indochina and Algeria wars of independence.

The Doctrine came to form an important part of the ideology of the armed forces in Latin America, who for the first time extended their role as defenders of national borders with the defense against their own people, becoming the architects of State Terrorism. In addition, the Doctrine propagates a broad vision of the enemy: not only are people armed against a specific government considered insurgent terrorists, but also people who propagate ideas against the concept of national society that the US government has When you interpret the insurgent enemy in such a way, you can easily rank everyone under this definition. In addition, the insurgents are considered subversives, terrorists, traitors to the country, etc., and therefore they are not seen as Subjects of Law. For this reason, the doctrine justifies using violent methods to treat and eliminate the enemy.