There are three components to Chile's security apparatus: the armed forces, the country's uniformed police force (Carabineros de Chile), and the plainclothes investigations police (Country Reports 1995 1996, 1; HRW/A May 1994, 6). In January 1996, El Mercurio reported that the House of Deputies was drafting a bill proposing a new intelligence body that would incorporate the intelligence work now being done by the three security forces and the government (El Mercurio 13 Jan. 1996, C5).

Carabineros

The carabineros are a branch of the armed forces under the authority of the Ministry of Defence but under the operational control of the Ministry of the Interior (World Encyclopedia of Police Forces and Penal Systems 1989, 61; HRW/A May 1994, 6). In 1994 the carabineros were described as a "paramilitary force of 27,000 engaged in law enforcement, traffic management, narcotics suppression, border control and counter-terrorism" (Countries of the World 1994 1994, 419). The senior carabineros chief in each province is subordinate to the intendente, the president's provincial representative (World Encyclopedia of Police Forces and Penal Systems 1989, 62).

The carabineros, who are responsible for maintaining public order and policing in the urban, rural and most isolated areas of the country (HRW/A May 1994, 6; Country Reports 1995 1996, 1; World Encyclopedia of Police Forces and Penal Systems 1989, 61), are often the first door of access to the judicial system (Comisión Andina de Juristas May 1995, 16n6). The Andean Commission of Jurists reports that officers understand and frequently resolve many conflicts, especially in poorer neighbourhoods (ibid., 16). However, Nibaldo Galleguillos¹ claims that the positive view of the force formerly held by the people of Chile changed when the carabineros became involved in the repression of the later years of the Pinochet regime (Galleguillos 19 Mar. 1996). In January 1996, Le Devoir reported that 249 officers, suspended since November 1995, would be fired on 1 February for robberies, assault and other incidents (Le Devoir 25 Jan. 1996, A5).

Investigations Police

The Investigations Police is Chile's plainclothes police force, responsible for criminal investigations and controlling immigration (HRW/A May 1994, 6; Country Reports 1995 1996, 1). Personnel are located throughout the country's urban areas (World Encyclopedia of Police Forces and Penal Systems 1989, 62). It is a civilian force, and like the carabineros, is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Defence but under the operational control of the Ministry of the Interior (Country Reports 1995 1996, 1). Provincial inspectors of the investigations police report to a director general in Santiago (World Encyclopedia of Police Forces and Penal Systems 1989, 62).

Armed Forces

The 1980 constitution granted Chile's security forces four prerogatives:

the constitutional authority to repress Chilean citizens; a permanent presence in every branch of government to ensure that the national security was correctly taken into account; the insulation of the highest ranking officers of the military and police from dismissal; and the right to appeal to special constitutional safeguards against constitutional reforms that might affect any military prerogative (Armed Forces & Society Winter 1995, 257).

The security forces' "right to repress" was greatly limited by constitutional amendments following plebiscites in 1989 and 1991 (ibid., 263).

Relations between the government and the military have continued under the Frei administration to show "tensions from the past that continue to sour Chile's democratic future" (Latin America Regional Reports 19 Oct. 1995, 2). While Armed Forces & Society concludes that "if more consequential changes to the Chilean scheme of civil-military relations are not wrought, a deleterious stalemate between soldiers and civilians will persist" (Armed Forces and Society Winter 1995, 266), Latin American Regional Reports describes the tensions between military and government as amounting to "name calling rather than sticks and stones" (Latin American Regional Reports 19 Oct. 1995, 2). A number of defence analysts and politicians in Chile who were interviewed during the last quarter of 1995 by David Pugliese, a Canadian journalist studying civil-military relations in Chile, predict that the military's influence will wane as Pinochet's term as head of the army ends in 1998 (Defense News 29 Jan.- 4 Feb. 1996, 4). Pugliese suggests a consensus is emerging among the analysts and politicians that the military will adjust peacefully to its new and less influential role in Chilean politics (ibid.)

On 3 December 1995, José Miguel Ortiz, first vice-president of Chile's House of Deputies, predicted to Pugliese that "once Pinochet is gone ... relations between the military and the government will improve ..." (ibid., 21). Professor Galleguillos demurs, saying that, in his opinion, the institutional and constitutional arrangements make "crystal clear that once Pinochet is gone ... the armed forces as an institution will continue to exert as much control over the Chilean political process and the general direction of the country as has been the case since ... 1973" (Galleguillos 19 Mar. 1996). And because governments since Pinochet have not made the military accountable for past human rights abuses, Galleguillos states "the armed forces now feel that they can do it again knowing that nothing will happen to them" (ibid.).

Military Service / Conscription (2)

Military service of 14 months is compulsory for men in Chile, and exemptions are granted only in cases of "physical, mental or judicial disability" (Embassy of Chile 28 Mar. 1996; UPI 5 Mar. 1996; Washington Report on the Hemisphere 7 Aug. 1995, 5; Against the Current Nov.-Dec. 1994, 1). According to an article by Rex Wockner³, homosexuals are "kicked out" of the military (International News 27 Apr. 1995) yet, according to the Movement for Gay and Lesbian Liberation (MOVILH), "completion of military service is routinely required for employment" (Against the Current Nov.-Dec. 1994, 1). In 1994, MOVILH organized a coalition to resist military service (ibid.) UPI reports that in March 1996 about 50 youth leaders in Santiago demonstrated against obligatory military service (UPI 5 Mar. 1996).

The Commission on Truth and Reconciliation appointed by President Aylwin in 1991 to clarify the human rights abuses committed during the military dictatorship recommended that the offspring of the victims of abuse be exempted from military service (Memoria July 1995, 16).

References

Against the Current [Detroit]. November-December 1994. Vol. 9, No. 5. Emily Bono. "Gays and Lesbians in Chile Fight Back: Out of the Shadows."

Armed Forces and Society [Chicago]. Winter 1995. Vol. 21, No. 2. Mark Ensalaco. "Military Prerogatives and the Stalemate of Chilean Civil-Military Relations."

Comisión Andina de Juristas. May 1995. Chile: Sistema Judicial y Derechos Humanos. Lima: Comisión Andina de Juristas.

Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1995. 1996. United States Department of State. Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office. (Internet: Department of State gopher)

Countries of the World and Their Leaders Yearbook 1994. 1994. Vol. 1. Edited by Thomas F. Bowen and Kelley S. Bowen. Detroit: Gale Research.

Defense News [Ottawa]. 29 January-4 February 1996. David Pugliese. "Post-Pinochet Military Might to Lose Punch."

Le Devoir. [Montréal]. 25 January 1996. "'Ripoux': Chiliens Remerciés."

Embassy of Chile. 28 March 1996. Fax from Military Attaché received by HRI.

Galleguillos, Nibaldo. 19 March 1996. Interview with HRI.

Human Rights Watch/Americas (HRW/A). May 1994. Vol. 6, No. 6. Unsettled Business: Human Rights in Chile at the Start of the Frei Presidency. New York: Human Rights Watch.

International News [San Diego/San Francisco]. 27 April 1995. No. 52. Rex Wockner. "World Policies on Gays in the Military Vary Widely."

Latin American Regional Reports: Southern Cone Report [London]. 19 October 1995. "Military & Politics: Feelings Boil Over at Annual Parade."

El Mercurio [Santiago, in Spanish]. 13 January 1996. "Chile: Creation of Intelligence Agency Proposed." (FBIS-LAT-96-036 22 Feb. 1996, p. 57)

United Press International (UPI). 5 March 1996. BC Cycle. "Chileans Oppose Military Service." (NEXIS)

Washington Report on the Hemisphere. 7 August 1995. Vol. 15, No. 14. "Forced Military Conscription Mars the Region."

World Encyclopedia of Police Forces and Penal Systems. 1989. George Thomas Kurian. New York: Facts on File Publications.

NOTES :

¹ A professor of political science in the department of political science at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Galleguillos is the author of numerous articles on Chile and Latin America, the most recent being "Governance, Democratic Development and Human Rights, The Role of the Judiciary in the Chilean Transition to Democracy." A Chilean native, he was a human rights lawyer who defended political prisoners in that country until he left in 1976.
² For more detailed information on this subject please refer to Response to Information Request CHL17170.E of 2 May 1994 which is available at Regional Documentation Centres.
³ A journalist based in San Diego and San Francisco, California, Wockner covers international news for 70 gay and lesbian publications in 35 US states and 13 countries.