Central America in the 1980s (democracy and arms)

Abstract

During the 1980s Latin America has experienced various forms of transition to political democracy. At the base of democratization processes is an unprecedented economic crisis since the collapse of 1929. The decade of democratization has also been "the lost decade" in terms of development and quality of life. It is not that democracy has spawned the economic crisis but rather that the deterioration of the economy gradually took the military out of the exercise of political power. Understanding that nothing wears down the popularity and legitimacy of a ruling elite more than erosion in the standard of living of citizens, military commanders opted for a retreat to the barracks waiting for better times. The new civilian governments have then inherited the unpublished phenomenon of recession with inflation, widespread poverty, the polarization of social life, and the crisis of a voluminous external debt concluded during the "reign of the military." Political democratization and economic crisis are two aspects of the same Latin American reality during the 1980s. Building on this global perspective, the crisis in the economy becomes the main obstacle to the consolidation of democracy and a failure to manage the issues of recession, unemployment, inflation and external debt would create a political framework of unsenchantment and skepticism towards democratic formulas. Such a framework would become the best stimulant for the military's return to government houses. In other words, only if the 1990s is loathed as a period of economic revival and take-off towards development, then the processes of democratization will be irreversible and consistent. On the contrary, a new "lost decade" in terms of development would be the ideal substrate for a chain of palatial coups and the reconstruction of dictatorships inspired by the doctrine of national security. Thus, such a regression table would tend to fuel the experiences of insurgent violence in the countries of the subcontinent. To be certain, countries such as Paraguay and Chile are just beginning the transit to democracy, while Panama and Haiti still survive as military regimes and Cuba remains immutable, insensitive to the reformist currents of international communism and anachronistically clinging to Stalinist militarism. In Nicaragua, there are still unknowns about their political future that will be cleared during the February 1990 elections.