"Integrating the Big Guns: The Central American Defense Council,"
Little countries in Central America are setting a brisk pace for larger nations of the New World in combating Red Cuban subversion as well as in lowering trade barriers. Their Central American...
...Throughout 1972, the leaders of Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua met several times, to "achieve the total pacification of Central America...
...Saxe Fernandez, "The Militarization of Costa Rica," p. 70...
...El Imparcial (Guatemala), November 20, 1972...
...training, a relatively homogeneous ideology has emerged among the military establishments of the five countries...
...domination of the area...
...During the past year, President Arana of Guatemala has attempted to change CONDECA into a real political force in the region.23 Since a detailed analysis of CONDECA has been written by John Saxe Fernandez, 4 this article will focus on the direct U.S...
...is anxious to increase its influence in that area...
...At a September, 1961, meeting of the Supreme Commands of the five Central American and Panamanian armies in Guatemala City, these military leaders recommended the creation of a joint defense council...
...8. Willard F. Barber and C. Neale Ronning, Internal Security and Military Power (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1966...
...Barber and Ronning have noted the special enthusiasm of the Central American military for "the ideas and arguments advanced by the U.S...
...is forced to intervene directly, as in Santo Domingo or Vietnam, this is an indication that it has already lost half the battle...
...9 However, the military alliances that CONDECA had fostered were severely weakened, and in fact after the war Honduras withdrew from CONDECA...
...by November, they agreed that "the three of us are in the same boat...
...The first efforts to coordinate military activity were initiated by the Castillo Armas government in Guatemala in 1956, to meet the "danger" of an exile invasion...
...Only a coordinated effort would allow the military to contain revolutionary regionalism...
...Third...
...In addition, local security forces are well aware of past cooperation between the revolutionary movements in Nicaragua and Guatemala...
...But in 1964, the Defense Ministers of Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua finally signed an agreement formally establishing a Central American Defense Council...
...In addition, according to General Robert Porter...
...In recent years, the defense of Central America has been considered vital for the protection of U.S...
...A further move towards "unification" has been an attempt to standardize military equipment through pur- chases of U.S...
...has not hesitated to intervene directly in Central America when its interests were threatened...
...In addition, these military maneuvers have been designed to further incorporate Costa Rica into the military community...
...May, 1972...
...Gnffico (~uatemala), December 20, 1972...
...Although military unification in Central America has received a great deal of emphasis and support, it has not been the only U.S...
...policy objective...
...cit., p. 92...
...Coming at a time when the economic integration effort has broken down, this could signify a shift in the nature of regional cooperation...
...Second, CONDECA's structure allows for dominant U.S...
...military supervision...
...Local leadership was provided by the Salvadoran Minister of Defense and current President of CONDECA, General Fidel Torres...
...It would also come at an opportune moment for Guatemala which...
...By now, however, the armed forces of Central America have come to recognize the advantages of regional cooperation against these threats...
...The main reason for U.S...
...3 No less important is the area's proximity to the Panama Canal, which is a particularly sensitive point for the U.S...
...Furthermore, although the existence of CONDECA, and the accompanying military alliances make a successful struggle more difficult, they have been a strong incentive toward revolutionary cooperation on a regional level...
...Southern Command until 1969, Central America is important strategically "because it permits access by relatively defensible routes to the raw materials of South America...
...military influence and minimizes the cost to the U.S...
...training has been instrumental in fostering a sense of "military community," and in achieving some measure of ideological homogeneity...
...sponsored a "crucial" series of joint military maneuvers, called Operation Brotherhood...
...In any case, the military is becoming increasingly important as the focal point of U.S...
...military presence, the U.S...
...6. Saxe Fernandez, op...
...As such, CONDECA is a model for the U.S...
...In fact, although Costa Rica accepted exiles from the 1972 Salvadoran coup, the harassment of the exiles and the behavior of officials at the San Jos4 Airport, has been presented by some observers as evidence that CONDECA is "already operating in Costa Rica in a semi-clandestine manner...
...In addition, every country has a U.S...
...7 Only after information was leaked to the press did the public find out that the Costa Rican Civil Guard had participated in Operation Nicaro, a series of war games held in Honduras in 1966.24 area, to add to a centralized intelligence file...
...After the first revolt against President Ydigoras Fuentes of Guatemala in 1960, the young army officers who had participated escaped from the Guatemalan Army by fleeing to neighboring Honduras...
...pressure towards military "unification" is that the structure of CONDECA facilitates U.S...
...cit., p. 102...
...Joint military maneuvers have been carried out twice a year, to instill a common sense of the "enemy" in rank and file military personnel, and to teach common counterinsurgency techniques.* Further standardization of officer training is achieved in the U.S...
...At the beginning of 1972, Arana initiated a series of meetings aimed at forming a "true Central American Community...
...The revolt successfully overthrew Sanchez, and instituted a popular civilian military triumvirate, which lasted for 48 hours...
...2 Largely as a result of this intervention, the coup was reversed...
...intervention...
...cit., p. 2...
...As the only institution of its kind in the hemisphere, CONDECA is important for several reasons...
...This invasion never took place, and the Guatemalan government took great pains to assure Figueres that it had not been involved...
...supervision--as evidenced by growing U.S...
...In addition, many of the joint maneuvers have been designed to coordinate isthmus-wide defense in the event of a Cuban invasion, and this threat has been used repeatedly in pushing for Central American military "unification...
...Castillo Armas had led the CIAsponsored and financed ouster of the Arbenz government in 1954...
...Costa Rica did not sign the pact because it technically has not had an army since 1948, when the army was abolished by the Constitution...
...6 The accompanying chart shows the direct line of command from Washington...
...training and advisers to each country in Central America, with an emphasis on counterinsurgency techniques and civic action programs...
...military training and have adopted U.S...
...The upsurge of strong guerrilla movements in Guatemala and Nicaragua during the 1960s, after the Cuban revolution, threatened to jeopardize U.S...
...after being returned to power,25 the rightist government instituted a brutal repression against all political opposition and specifically against the university...
...9, World Armaments and Disarmament, SLPRZ Yearbook 1972 (~tockhohn: International Peace Research Institute, 1972), p. 140...
...Particularly since the December, 1972 coup restored an overt military government to power in Honduras, the "Central American community" is looking more and more like a bloc of rightist military dictatorships...
...This new organization was to be the basis for a coordinated attack on "internal subversion," through the use of counterinsurgency techniques and civic action...
...Thus from the Pentagon's point of view, the war was a demonstration of the need to maintain bilateral assistance pacts, while at the same time strengthening regional organizations such as CONDECA in order to prevent Central American armed forces from fighting with each other...
...and second, through integration of military efforts designed to overcome local rivalries among the armed forces of the region, and to prevent the growing revolutionary movements in Guatemala and Nicaragua from spreading to other Central American countries...
...However, as the publication Latin America noted: If in fact Guatemala did take a hand, it will make Molina more than a little beholden to the northern neighbor when he takes office in July...
...This coup was led by a Christian Democrat, Jos6 Napoleon Duarte, a popular progressive who claimed to have won the February, 1972 election, but was being barred from taking power by an official fraud in the vote count...
...gional cooperation itself has become part of the military ideology...
...Army, Navy and Air Force...
...In addition, CONDECA was to centralize intelligence operations against "subversives" in Central America...
...pressure, CONDECA was slow to get off the ground...
...has increased its political control of the areawithout having to intervene directly-and has made sure that its local military allies will protect its interests and those of the dependent ruling classes in Central America...
...The coup was aimed at overthrowing the repressive government of General Fidel Sanchez, and preventing Colonel Arturo Armando Molina from taking power in June...
...military operations and assistance were shifted to the Southern Command Base in Panama, the U.S...
...As Roque Dalton stated, the main strength of imperialism in Central America is its ability to use a local apparatus for protection of its interests...
...Costa Rica's Foreign Minister Gonzalo Facio charged publicly that this group was operating in conjunction with its counterpart in Guatemala, Mano Blanca (White Hand), under the leadership of the President of the Guatemalan Congress, Mario Sandoval Alarcon...
...However, political rivalries among the Central American governments prevented this early initiative from succeeding.* When the headquarters of U.S...
...CONCLUSION CONDECA and the U.S...
...While promoting CONDECA, the U.S...
...THE U.S...
...During most of the 1960s, CONDECA was primarily a bureaucratic institution, and most counterinsurgency and civic action campaigns were carried out by each Central American country separately...
...Central American security forces also exchange intelligence information on "subversives" in the CONDECA AND THE AIERICAN MILIrARY ESTABLISHMENT An Orpgnizationl Model36 In this diagram CONDECA's organizational chart is integrated to the composition and organization of the Office of the Secretary of Defense...
...Marines were sent to Nicaragua as late as the 1930s, and the CIA organized a coup in Guatemala in 1954...
...The Costa Rican representative to CONDECA, Colonel Renato Delcore, was arrested for his alleged complicity in the plot...
...Arms purchases and military aid grants are arranged separately...
...Almost simultaneously with the Salvadoran coup, in March, 1972, President Jost Figueres announced that an invasion to overthrow his government was being planned by a right-wing paramilitary group called Costa Rica Libre...
...spokesman for civic action...
...began to put increased pressure on the Central American military establishments to agree on some form of cooperation...
...If Costa Rica does attempt to preserve its democratic facade, it has good reason to be concerned...
...2. Philippe Schmitter, Autonomy or Dependence as Regional Integration Outcomes: Central America (Berkeley, University of California, Berkeley: Institute of International Studies, 1972), p. 30...
...cit., p. 28...
...The first such invasion was launched from Nicaragua, and Guatemala was used to train the force for the Bay of Pig invasion in 1962...
...The charter of CONDECA was amended in 1966 to include security officers, so as to make it possible for Costa Rica to participate...
...aid, in this case military aid, in strengthening local forces to protect U.S...
...These efforts towards military "unification" have clear practical implications...
...One of CONDECA's goals has been to standardize the internal organi- zation of the six armies...
...involvement in the military integration process, and on recent developments related to CONDECA...
...military policy it represents, have important political implications for the possibility of real political change in Central America...
...In addition, special emphasis has been placed on standardizing military training in Central America...
...In this sense, incorporating Costa Rica is of particular concern, as it has been and remains a sanctuary for political refugees from the rest of Central America...
...military missions provide close supervision for the armed forces in each country...
...In order to prevent "another Cuba" on the Central American mainland,* and to avoid the negative political repercussions of a direct U.S...
...interests and those of its Central American allies...
...Central American revolutionaries are becoming aware that even under socialism, Central America can only survive if it is united...
...Their Central American Common Market is being held up as a model to potential similar groupings on other continents...
...After all, as Figueres put it, "We cannot leave police tasks to be determined by a convent of nuns, can we...
...Ream= Nestor in El Popular, Montevideo When the presidents come marching in...
...Although CONDECA originated independently from the economic integration process, it was the necessary military/political counterpart to it...
...This is particularly important because the military has taken over political leadership in four of * Historically, the Central American countries had often served as bases for overthrowing each other's governments-recent examples being the 1954 ouster of Arbenz (which involved Honduras and El the five countries...
...There have been other indications of a clandestine "CONDECA connection" in Costa Rica...
...Regardless of the truth of the rumored invasion, the net result was a strengthening of the Costa Rican Civil Guard, which was prepared for the defense of Costa Rican territory...
...If this proves to be insufficient, neighboring armed forces can be counted on to provide reinforcements of materiel and personnel...
...Its purpose is to coordinate and centralize military command of the region under U.S...
...Salvador) and the battles during the 1950s between the Figueres government in Costa Rica and the Somoza government in Nicaragua...
...A joint military maneuver was held in Guatemala in January of 1973, and Arana has made several references to the need for a "Central American Army" to be used in case of emergency.' 0 The first concrete act of cooperation was aid from Guatemala and Nicaragua to the Salvadoran military in putting down a coup in March, 1972...
...Nevertheless, Washington increased its arms shipments to both countries after this conflict, and as a result both armies were strengthened...
...It is generally understood that in the case of an internal threat of subversion, the national armed forces will be called in first...
...Army School of the Americas in Panama, and U.S...
...The staff of CONDECA is closely supervised by the CIA, which provides intelligence information, and by the Central American representatives of the U.S...
...1 This article is a brief description of CONDECA, the Central American Defense Council, which was created in 1964 by the Ministers of Defense of Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua...
...backing, has been pushing to reconsolidate military alliances to intervene in Central American politics...
...3. General Robert Porter, Statement Before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on the FY 1968 Military Assistance Program, April 25,1967 (mimeo...
...CONDECA's staff is composed of high level representatives of the armies and security offices of Central America...
...Idem...
...Civil Affairs School, Fort Gordon, Ga., 1964...
...HAND IN CONDECA According to one study, "The external-i.e., U.S.impact on integration in [the military) sector has been great, if not determinate...
...66, June 1972, p. 4. 13...
...Although the Guatemalan government has vigorously denied its participation in putting down the revolt, informed sources claim that Guatemala's intervention was the decisive factor...
...investments in the area...
...This reduces the political tensions and the possibility of nationalist sentiments which would coalesce against direct U.S...
...military mission advising its Armed Forces and maintaining close personal relationships with top military officers...
...In spite of U.S...
...A recent setback for military cooperation was the 1969 war between El Salvador and Honduras (see "Masterminding the Mini-Market," above...
...The door was left open for Costa Rica and Panama to participate as observers...
...A number of Costa Rican politicians have expressed fears that this new "close working relationship" among the military governments of the neighboring Central American countries will mean further pressure on Costa Rica to form a "proper army" and to join CONDECA...
...sought to secure the area's defense in two basic ways: first, through sizeable military aid grants, * Moreover, Central America has been used as a staging ground for operations to overthrow the revolutionary Cuban government...
...see also Prenso Gdfica (El Salvador), March 18, 1972...
...who was Commanding General of the U.S...
...5. Schmitter, op...
...First, the formation of CONDECA is a classic example of the U.S...
...p. 131...
...training has had important political repercussions, because the armed forces now control the governments in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua...
...Clearly, one result of the militarization of Central America is the increasing militarization of Costa IRica, under U.S...
...THE GENERALS GET TOGETHER Prior to the formation of CONDECA, each of the Central American countries had its own separate military aid pact with the United States, under the Military Assistance Act of 1951...
...Ibid., September 1, 1972...
...Strengthening Local Allies Thus, CONDECA has been an institutional framework within which the military commanders of the area could begin to form alliances...
...Combat planes from Guatemala and Nicaragua, under the personal supervision of Arana and Somoza, bombed the military bases that were in rebel hands...
...The armies of Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua participated in this exercise...
...Whenever the U.S...
...Latin America, March 31, 1972, p. 97...
...arms...
...A NEW "CENTRAL AMERICAN COMMUNITY" During the past year there have been indications that Guatemala, under the leadership of President Arana, with U.S...
...Latin America, March 31, 1972, p. 97...
...ideas about "development...
...s (Guatemala refused asylum to Salvadoran exiles...
...In this sense, the U.S...
...7. Saxe Fernandez, "The Militarization of Costa Rica," Monthly Review...
...Thus, the centralization and institutionalization of counterrevolution may accelerate the process of forming a "true Central American community" under socialism.26 References 1. Miami Hemld, September 30,1967...
...military influence in the Central American area...
...Latin American Radicalism (New York: Vintage Books, 1969...
...The political repercussions of this intervention are difficult to determine...
...8 In addition, several of the current military heads of state have received extensive U.S...
...aid to the nation's police forces...
...This war demonstrated a reversion to the kinds of intra-regional hostilities which CONDECA was designed to overcome...
...Since the beginning of the century, the U.S...
...CONDECA's structure and activities are designed to maximize contacts among the armed forces in Central America, in order to reduce political rivalries, to increase cooperation on all levels, and to reinforce a sense of common purpose...
...Roque Dalton, "Notas sobre el Sistema Imperialists de Domi- naci6n y Explotaci6n en CentroamCica," OCLAE, no...
...1 In addition, as Latin America pointed out, this may be a lesson to all left-of-center Central Americans who might be interested in overthrowing an existing rightist government...
...In addition, on February 28, Washington announced approval of a $2.8 million arms sale to Costa Rica which had previously been delayed...
...Coordination of intelligence efforts is extremely important in preventing the possibility of a coordinated insurrection: in fact, CONDECA officials have adamantly opposed the proposal of open borders and free travel between countries, in order to limit the possibilities of an area-wide revolutionary organization...
...Is Regionalism Enough...
...In addition, the Central American military were among the main endorsers of civic action programs designed by the United States...
...superimposing a military structure on an underdeveloped region...
...proposal for an Inter-American Defense Force...
...has retained maximum flexibility in the area by continuing its bilateral military assistance pacts with each country...
...Dalton, op...
...A Central American military training school is being planned...
...influence over Central American unification...
...See Barber and Ronning, op...
...In order to begin implementing this recommendation and to overcome local resistance to cooperation, the U.S...
...4. John Saxe Fernandez, "The Central American Defense Council and Pax Americana," in I. L. Horowitz, J. de Castro and J. Gerassi (eds...
...Since then, however, largely as a result of U.S...
...CONDECA illustrates the use of U.S...
...Action against this revolt was first planned by Colonel Carlos Guzman, head of the Salvadoran Military Mission to Washington...
Vol. 7 • May 1973 • No. 5
