“Radical Populists” and Military Prerogatives in Venezuela and Ecuador

Abstract

As Chapter 2 illustrated, civilian authorities in Colombia and Peru maintained political control over the military and even reduced military prerogatives (the appointment of civilian defense ministers and greater control over military budgets and domestic intelligence agencies) despite the existence of severe internal security threats, weak states, and party de-institutionalization. In contrast, Venezuela and Ecuador have regularly failed to meet the criteria of civilian control since 1990. During the 1990s and 2000s Ecuador has had seven presidents, with three removed either by direct military intervention through a coup (President Mahuad in 2000) or in part because of the withdrawal of military support for the president (Bucaram in 1997 and Gutiérrez in 2005). In addition, the military maintains control over various state companies (military and nonmilitary related) as well as a significant role in economic and national development (Selmeski 2002, p. 1). In the case of Venezuela there has been one briefly successful military coup (2002) and two coup attempts (both in 1992). The government is presently being led by one of the 1992 coup leaders, Hugo Chávez, who has gone far in militarizing Venezuelan politics through governmental appointments of military officers and the expansion of their social/economic responsibilities since he was first elected president in 1998.

That is not democracy, but corruption. If democracy leaves 90 percent of Ecuadorians in total poverty, then we are against democracy. But we believe in democracy ; we know that democracy was born as an ideal in opposition to absolutism, inequality, injustice and oppression.

—Ecuadorian colonel Lucio Gutiérrez (Gutiérrez 2001, p. 164)