Arms Aid to Latin America

Report Outline
Latin Generals and United States Arms
United States Program of Military Aid
Case for and Case Against Ending Aid
Special Focus

Latin Generals and United States Arms

Criticism of Military Aid to Latin America

A resurgence of military influence in Latin American countries, notably Argentina and Peru, has raised demands in the Congress of the United States for review of this country's 10-year-old policy of arms aid to other republics of the Western Hemisphere. Toppling during the decade of a number of Latin American dictator generals—Odria in Peru, Rojas Pinilla in Colombia, Perez Jimenez in Venezuela, and Batista in Cuba—led to the assumption that democratic processes were graining strength in a region long addicted to military dictatorship. Now, however, it looks as if that assumption had been premature.

Constitutional processes took a beating recently in Peru; Argentine generals and admirals, after throwing out one President and installing another, have been feuding among themselves in a struggle for continuing political power; and Cuba has fallen under, not a new military, but a Communist dictatorship. The wisdom of continuing the hemisphere arms aid program was called into question primarily by the return of military rule in Peru last July, Political maneuvering by Argentina's armed forces, behind a facade of civilian government, only tended to reinforce the position taken by the program's critics.

The present military aid program was initiated in 1951 with the aim of enabling Latin American armed forces to make an effective contribution to hemisphere defense. The emphasis shifted in 1961 to preservation of internal security in the respective countries. Since the Peruvian military coup, however, it has been asserted that weapons and other military aid obtained from the United States have been used too often to interfere with constitutional government and to keep dictators in power. Whether disclosure of massive Soviet military assistance to the Castro government in Cuba, and proposals of some states for special collective defense measures in the Caribbean, will quiet such criticism and again shift the emphasis of the U.S. program is not yet clear.