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

The military in Latin America has been extensively involved in pandemic relief operations. 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 respons...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Armed forces and society 2023-04, Vol.49 (2), p.372-394
Main Authors: Acacio, Igor, Passos, Anaís M., Pion-Berlin, David
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Armed forces
Autonomy
Case studies
Civil-military relations
Comparative analysis
COVID-19
Health care
Health services
Human rights
Human rights violations
Medicine
Militarization
Military intervention
Offenses
Original Manuscript
Pandemics
Violations
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Summary:The military in Latin America has been extensively involved in pandemic relief operations. 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 autonomous 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.
ISSN:0095-327X
1556-0848
DOI:10.1177/0095327X211070035