ABSTRACT
The military in Latin America has played a pivotal role in societal structure and became especially significant in the early nineteenth century, with the onset of the independence movements. Venezuelan-born Simon Bolivar and the Argentine Jose de San Martín are remembered as brilliant military tacticians; they demonstrated that Latin Americans could in fact organize and effectively fight against Europe to achieve political, social, and economic independence. The modern Latin American military structure was also born in the nineteenth century, and any discussion of contemporary military institutions in Latin America must consider their historic origins throughout the region. The Latin American military has historically played the role of power broker: militaries move into power, ostensibly to protect and save the fatherland from inept civilian rulers. Some of the worst human rights abuses in modern Latin American history were recorded during this second intervention.
