U.S. Police Assistance Programs in Latin America
Klare, Mike
The by now familiar panacea for domestic illsz "law and order," has long been described as the principal aim of U.S. policy in the Third World. Clearly, an attractive climate for capital...
...IN SELECTED LATIN AMERICAN COUNTRIES, 1970 ments include: construction, equipping and development of curriculum, staff and faculty for the National Police Academy, National Telecommunications Center and National Institutes of Criminalistics and Identification...
...In providing such assistance, OPS notes that most countries possess a unified 'civil security service' which, "in addition to regular police include paramilitary units within civil police organizations and paramilitary forces such as gendarmeries, constabularies, and civil guards which perform police functions and have as their primary mission maintaining internal security...
...1 The Public Safety program is not large in comparison to the military aid program--but its supporters offer some impressive arguments to underscore its importance...
...Since most of these countries cannot satisfy the aspirations of these new city-dwellers under present economic and social systems, built-up tensions are increasingly giving way to attacks on the status quo...
...All are functioning effectively in support of police departments throughout the country...
...According to Peter T. Chew, a journalist sympathetic to OPS, In May 1962 John "Jake" Longan, a slow-talking, fast-thinking Oklahoman, flew secretly to Caracas and set up an advisory group...
...These powers enable OPS to "act rapidly, vigorously, and effectively" in aiding Latin regimes threatened by popular uprisings...
...Police forces are also cheaper to maintain than military forces, since they do not require expensive "hardware" like planes and tanks...
...Assistance to Civil Security Forces," OPS press release dated Feb...
...Students at the various OPS schools are advised to "stay out of politics" (i.e., to support whatever regime happens to be in power), and are trained in the techniques of "non-lethal crowd control" (i.e., the massive use of riot gases...
...Ecuador El Salvador Guyana Honduras Jamaica Panama Peru Uruguay Venezuela 1956 1959 1963 1963 1963 1962 1962 1961 1966 1960 1967 1959 1962 1962 1963 1,900 6,830 1,571 4,350 985 2,583 3,290 1,825 711 1,074 272 3,059 3,528 869 2,318 118 732 90 217 240 470 186 87 311 167 172 383 114 230 285 2,018 7,562 1,661 4,567 1,225 3,053 3,476 1,912 1,022 1,241 444 3,442 3,642 1,099 2,603 143 456 71 240 200 423 134 86 232 165 70 135 0 200 210 Totals: 35,165 3,802 38,967 2,765 1...
...3. Cited by Holmes Alexander in undated article inserted in Foreign Assistance Hearings 1965, p. 76...
...direct-hire Public Safety officers will work with Brazilian federal and state police throughout FY 1971...
...1 0 Anti-riot measures are successful, from this perspective, when "no martyrs are created...
...Source: U.S...
...b) improvement of plice planning, budget and deployment policies...
...In the rapidly urbanizing nations of the Third World, however, civil disorders have become a common phenomenon as landless peasants stream to the cities in search of economic and cultural opportunities...
...Successful discharge of this responsibility is imperative if a nation is to establish and maintain the environment of stability and security so essential to economic, social, and political progress...
...Government Printing Office, 1964), p. 72...
...and renamed the International Police Academy...
...Does not include data for countries where OPS program terminated prior to FY 1970...
...Hereinafter cited as Foreign Assistance Hearings 1965...
...To this end priority is to be given to: (a) completion of the urban and administrative communication networks...
...A State Department memorandum, issued in November 1962, declared that AID "vests the Office of Public Safety with primary responsibility and authority for public safety programs and gives that Office a series of powers and responsibilities which will enable it to act rapidly, vigorously, and effectively...powers greater than any other technical office or division of AID...
...trade and investment...
...They persuaded Venezuelan police to favor the old-fashioned shotgun and showed how shotguns, firing buckshot and gas grenades, could be effectively used against terrorists...
...Senate, Committee on Appropriations, Foreign Assistance Appropriations, 1965, Hearings (Washington, D.C.: U.S...
...In order to deal with the dynamics of internal security situations," Mr...
...During hearings on the Foreign Assistance Appropriations for 1965, former AID Administrator David Bell described the function of OPS as follows: Maintenance of law and order including internal security is one of the fundamental responsibilities of government...
...PUBLIC SAFETY PROGRAMS (Note: the following project descriptions are drawn verbatim from the A.I.D...
...The police are frequently better trained and equipped than the military to deal with 2 minor forms of violence, conspiracy and subversion...
...Agency for International Development, Progra and Project Data Presentations to the Congress for Fiscal Year 1971...
...9 In the twilight world of Cold War hysteria inhabited by these men, a "small amount of Communist-led terrorism" is sufficient reason to subsidize the repressive instruments of a totalitarian regime...
...72-73...
...On the basis of these arguments, Bob Kennedy and John F. Kennedy were persuaded in 1962 to expand the small police assistance program that had been functioning since 1954, and to centralize U.S...
...Major project accomplishinsure an environment of law and order which supports the orderly social, economic, and political development of emerging nations...
...9. Ibid...
...and (d) continued expansion of in-country training capabilities...
...Since provocative police behavior frequently inspires anti-government campaigns, an important aspect of the Public Safety program are efforts to encourage "the development of responsible and humane police administration and judicial procedures...
...military planning has been shaped by the need to provide, on a moment's notice, trained counterinsurgency troops that can be flown to the aid of friendly regimes threatened by popular insurrection...
...Since the late 1950's, a preeminent concern of American policymakers has been the preservation of social stability in Third World countries deemed favorable to U.S...
...PUBLIC SAFETY PROGRAM EXPENDITURES IN LATIN AMERICA, 1956-19701 (Amounts in thousands of dollars) (FY Fiscal Year) Expenditures through 6/30/69: Estimated expenditures in FY 1970: Estimated Expenditures thru 6/30/70: Bolivia Brazil Chile Colombia Costa Rica Dominican Rep...
...2. Ibid., pp...
...FY 1971 Program: Emphasis will be on strengthening the Federal Police Department and efforts to further develop national police institutions, particularly the National Police Academy and Telecommunications Center which are in their first year of operation...
...Technicians: 4 direct-hire advisors in in- vestigations, urban police operations, training and communications...
...In justifying continued OPS aid to such regimes, Bell explained that "...the police are a strongly anti-Communist force right now...
...Bell explained, "the public safety program has developed and utilized methods to deliver to threatened countries, in a matter of days, urgently needed assistance including equipment, training, and technical advice...
...10, 1963...
...CC'.OMBIA Project Target and Course of Action: To assist (1) the National Police in improving their mobility and communications, training capability, and equipment maintenance and repair operations...
...Progress to Date: In 1969 the rural telecommunica- tions network was completed, partial delivery made on the 1,255 vehicles purchased through an Export-Import Bank loan, and 4 regional communi- cations centers were organized and are scheduled to be operational in 1970...
...Also, the project has supported a substantial increase in police telecommunications with the construction and installation of base and mobile facilities and equipment which provide for communication from every state to Brasilia as well as limited intra and inter-state communications...
...FY 1971 Proram: Continued assistance to the Nation- al Police is to be provided to high priority police activities where improved performance can be expected to come about quickly...
...according to OPS, Individual Public Safety programs, while varying from country to country, are focused ingeneral on developing within the civil security forces a balance of (1) a capability for regular police operations, with (2) an investigative capability for detecting and identifying criminal and/or subversive individuals and organizations and neutralizing their activities, and with (3) a capability for controlling militant activities ranging from demonstrations, disorders, or riots through small-scale guerrilla operations...
...5. Ibid...
...8. Foreign Assistance Hearings 1965, p. 75...
...c) more efficient police logistics and records systems...
...aids Latin police forces by: (1) providing "in-country" training for rank-and-file policemen...
...6. Foreign Assistance Hearings 1965, p. 74...
...interests...
...Progress to date:'Through December 1969, the Public Safety project in Brazil has assisted in training locally over 100,000 federal and state police personnel...
...Bell is talking about Brazil, a country which continues to receive a substantial OPS subsidy (see Appendix), despite well-documented reports of the torture of political prisoners by Brazilian police...
...Thousands of Dominican police received training in riot-control techniques from an American team that included several former members of the Los Angeles Police Department...
...From 1963 to 1968, 329 key Colombian police officials were graduated from the International Police Academy...
...16 man-months of short-term advisors in motor vehicle maintenance, logistics, planning, administration, communications, criminalistics and prosecutions...
...and (3) supplying communications equipment, patrol cars, jeeps, anti-riot gases, and related equipment...
...For that reason it is a very important force to us...
...Clearly, an attractive climate for capital investment cannot develop in an atmosphere of disorder and instability...
...5 As noted in the State Department memo cited above, OPS possesses unique powers not granted to other AID bureaus...
...Longan's men worked with city policemen, teaching such fundamentals as now to approach a suspicious car on foot and how to still a sniper in a building without harming residents...
...Total OPS expenditures in Latin America are indicated in the accompanying chart, and a breakdown of OPS programs in selected Latin countries is provided as an appendix...
...Bob Kennedy was also instrumental in the establishment of the Inter-American Police Academy in the Panama Canal Zone (the Academy was later moved to Washington, D.C...
...The main objective of this approach, according to OPS Director Byron Engle, is to prevent situations in which "an oppressive police force drives a deep wedge between the people and their government...
...On the basis of this statement, it is possible to conclude that Mr...
...and (2) the Attorney General's Office in im- proving criminal investigation and prosecution procedures...
...6 When a crisis develops in a Latin capital, OPS officials often stay up "night after night" in their Washington, D.C...
...Additionally, 523 persons received training in the U.S...
...ll.Foreign Assistance Hearings 1965, p. 75...
...Several instances of such rapid action by OPS can be identified...
...Yet there are exceptions to this rule: Administrator Bell told a A.I.D...
...11ll FOOTNOTES: 1. U.S...
...OPS advisers were also brought into the Dominican Republic after the 1965 insurrection...
...When there is a need, technical assistance to the police of developing nations to meet their responsibilities promotes and protects these U.S...
...Substantial increases in police mobility have been achieved, primarily through funding for Brazilian manufactured vehicles...
...10.The Los Angeles Times (Feb...
...office to insure that needed supplies--including radios and tear-gas--reach the beleaguered police of the friendly regime...
...and some 30,000 men received in-service refresher courses...
...Plainly, the United States has very great interests in the creation and maintenance of an atmosphere of law and order under humane, civil concepts and control...
...3 (These special powers are discussed further below...
...4 The AID program is designed to encompass all of these functions...
...In 1962, when the government of Venezuela (then headed by President Romulo Betancourt) came under heavy pressure from guerrillas of the Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN), 29 John F. Kennedy launched a crash program to upgrade the Caracas police...
...Under the Public Safety program, the U.S...
...250 police personnel were trained in evidence collection, urban patrol, and criminal laboratory methods...
...Finally, on the premise that the police constitute a "first line of defense against subversion," the foreign assistance program has been utilized to provide Latin American police forces with equipment and training...
...The Military Assistance Program has been used to upgrade the capabilities of indigenous forces to counter the same kind'of threat...
...Project emphasis is on the concept of police service to the public...
...AID officials state flatly that OPS assistance is "not given to support dictatorships...
...They also demonstrated how to bounce birdshot off the pavement for effective non-lethal riot control.7 A year later, when OPS was satisfied with the performance of the Caracas police, "Longan and some of his advisers quietly slipped away from Venezuela...
...The long-range objective is to assist the Colombian national police force in developing their capability to provide more effective civil law enforcement based on democratic civil police concepts, and to perform their internal security responsibilities...
...Participants: Short-term training for 80 Brazilian police officers and officials mainly at the International Police Academy, Washington, D.C...
...assistance in the form of advisory services, selected communications equipment, and training is designed to encourage more effective use of police resources and to develop a corps of well-trained police officials...
...A.I.D...
...2) providing training in the U.S., Puerto Rico and the Canal Zone for senior police officers and specialists...
...country: Program initiated FY: FY 1971 Request:Senate Committee that in one country, "...despite the limitations of the present government, it is considered desirable and proper to continue to assist in the improvement of the efficiency of the civilian police force to counteract the small amount of Communist-led terrorism and to make sure the police can confront and stop any larger effort...
...Approximately 2,000 Latin police officers have received training at the International Police Academy, and some 90 "Public Safety Advisors" (mainly ex-FBI agents and former municipal police officers) are now stationed in Latin America to conduct in-country training programs...
...7. Peter T. Chew, "America's Global Peace Officers," The Kiwanis Magazine (April, 1969), p. 24...
...OPS officials are fully aware that in many Latin countries the police are regarded with suspicion and resentment by the population because of their brutal behavior...
...4. "A.I.D...
...11, 1970...
...almost 1,500 officers received counterinsurgency training in Colombia...
...The task of providing assistance to Latin police forces is the responsibility of the Office of Public Safety (OPS) of the U.S...
...Program and Project Data Presentations to the Congress for Fiscal Year 1971...
...Agency for International Development (AID...
...police programs in the Office of Public Safety...
...Expansion of the tele3031 communications network and of vehicular mobility will be supported with added stress on develop- ment of internal capability for improved main- tenance and repair...
...BRAZIL Project Target and Course of Action: To improve the capability of the Brazilian federal and state civil security forces to maintain law and order, and security against subversion, by supporting development of Federal Police Department capacity to provide training and technical' support ininternally and for state police departments nationwide...
...Despite the many contradictions between OPS ideology and the practices of Latin police forces, Administrator Bell concluded his Senate statement with the observation that "...public safety forces have done and can do much to prevent conspiracy and the development of disruptive situations, and to APPENDIX: A.I.D...
...Technicians: Thirteen U.S...
...They argue, for instance, that the Programs police--being interspersed among the civil population--are more effective than the military in controlling low-scale insurgency...
...According to Administrator Bell, "...the police are a most sensitive point of contact between government and people, close to the focal points of unrest, and more acceptable than the army as keepers of order over long periods of time...
Vol. 4 • June 1970 • No. 3
