Abstract

SALA, Laura Yanina. Protecting “Democracy” from the Barracks: The National Stability Doctrine of Guatemalan Military Officers. Secuencia [online]. 2020, n.107, e1705.  Epub June 15, 2020. ISSN 2395-8464.  https://doi.org/10.18234/secuencia.v0i107.1705.

This article analyzes the National Stability Doctrine designed by the strategic sector of the Guatemalan Army. It explores the process of its design by exploring the elements of the political debates of the time that it incorporated and reformulated, and shows the most important proposals and transformations it introduced into military thought. It posits that the national army implied a new, conservative and authoritarian signification of social conflict, democracy and military function in society that guided the transformations in the armed institution and can be summarized by the idea of “protecting ‘democracy’ from the barracks”. The article contributes to the study of changes in the mentality of the armed forces and, through it, to the process of “authoritarian transition to democracy” in Guatemala.

Keywords : armed forces; National Stability Doctrine; military thought; democracy; subversion.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )