Military Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic Crisis in Latin America: Military Presence, Autonomy, and Human Rights Violations

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0095327X211070035
• Published date: 01 April 2023
• Date: 01 April 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0095327X211070035

Armed Forces & Society

2023, Vol. 49(2) 372 –394

© The Author(s) 2022

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DOI: 10.1177/0095327X211070035

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Article

1134644AFSXXX10.1177/0095327X211070035Armed Forces & SocietyAcacio et al.

research-article2022

Military Responses to the

COVID-19 Pandemic Crisis in

Latin America: Military

Presence, Autonomy, and

Human Rights Violations

Igor Acacio

1

, Ana´

ıs M. Passos

2

, and David Pion-Berlin

1



Abstract

The military in Latin America has been extensively involved in pandemic relief op-

erations. This paper analyses the impact of militarization of pandemic relief operations

on human rights. It argues that not all militarization is equally harmful to individuals in

the region. When troops assume responsibilities regarding medical care and logistical

support, human rights violations do not follow. When involved in policing the stay-at-

home orders, the extent of human rights violations is explained by the level of

operational autonomy the military has in public security operations. The more au-

tonomous the military, more likely abuses are to occur. Additionally, military exposure

to judicial prosecution for human rights offenses contributes to the explanation. After

gathering original empirical evidence from 14 Latin American democracies on military

presence in pandemic relief, we draw our inferences from process tracing on four

comparative case studies of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and El Salvador.

Keywords

civil-military relations, military autonomy, covid-19 pandemic, human rights

1

Department of Political Science, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA, USA

2

Department of Sociology and Political Science, Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), Florianópolis/

SC, Brasil

Corresponding Author:

David Pion-Berlin, Department of Political Science, University of California, Riverside, 900 University Ave,

Riverside, CA 92521, USA.

Email: david.pion@ucr.edu

Acacio et al. 373

The military in Latin America has been extensively involved in pandemic relief op-

erations. From producing and distributing medical supplies, to caring for patients, to

enforcing health restrictions, the armed forces have comprised an important component

of the overall pandemic relief mission. Just as in in natural disasters, for which

militaries have been consistently used, (Kapucu, 2011;Maleˇ

siˇ

c, 2015) an adequate

response to COVID must be rapid, massive, superbly coordinated, and comprised of

professionals and volunteers who are suff‌iciently well trained or coached along the way.

Often times, the armed forces f‌it those qualif‌ications.

Countries are f‌inding that they can and must draw on the innate strengths of the

organization to supplement the services provided by civilian health professionals and

agencies (Pion-Berlin, 2016). Those strengths include the military’s customary hier-

archical structure of command and compliance ensuring that orders to respond to

COVID crisis are followed and with dispatch; facilities which can be converted to the

production of medical relief supplies, as well as barracks that can house supplies and

patients; national reach with installations stationed throughout the territory, seldom far

removed from communities aff‌licted by the disease; logistical capabilities enabling the

eff‌icient transport and distribution of materials; and f‌inally the economy of means

because the organization is already paid for, staffed and readily deployable.

In short, it is little wonder all Latin American countries have called upon the armed

forces to lend a hand in the face of disasters, epidemics, and this pandemic (Cepik &

Rodriguez, 2020;RESDAL, 2020). However, not all aspects of militarization are

equally welcomed and harmless. A wide and sustained military presence could create a

longer-term dependency on the armed forces and disincentives to build civilian

agencies. An autonomous military could take matters into its own hands, disregarding

the civilian chain of command. And a military ill-trained in law enforcement and the use

of restrained force could overreact, trampling on human rights when asked to enforce

health-related restrictions. The chances that abuse occur should rise, we hypothesize,

when militaries are extensively deployed for public security, enjoy higher levels of

operational autonomy, control the chain of command, and are not subject to judicial

recriminations in case misdeeds are committed.

The rest of the article will proceed as follows: The potential risks to military de-

ployment will be analyzed, distinguishing between the non-coercive and coercive

features of the operations. Then political and operational aspects of military autonomy

will be discussed and how these might theoretically impact troop behavior in the public

security realm. Then pandemic deployment will be analyzed in four countries of Latin

America drawn out of a larger sample of countries: Argentina, Chile, Brazil, and El

Salvador. We will pay particular attention to how militaries are deployed, how much

operationalautonomy militaries they have,and what the consequences are forthe public.

The Potential Risks to Military Involvement in Pandemic Relief

The militarization of the pandemic relief efforts is not an a priori cause to sound alarms.

Militaries have been used in the past to assist in natural disaster relief without imposing

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