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Chile
Index
Figure 13. Organization of the Armed Forces and Security
Forces, 1993
Under the 1925 and 1980 constitutions, the president is
the
head of the armed forces, with the ability to order the
disposition
of the air, sea, and land forces with the advice of the
military
commanders. In case of war, the president may declare war
and
assume the supreme military command of troops directly.
The
minister of defense, assisted by the subsecretaries of
defense for
the army, navy, and air force, is responsible for the
armed forces'
administrative control
(see
fig. 13). However, since the
transition
to civilian government in 1990 the president has had
little actual
control over the military, and the Ministry of Defense has
lacked
any effective control of the services and the Carabineros.
The chief executive appoints, for four-year terms,
commanders
in chief of the army, navy, and air force and the director
general
of the Carabineros "from among the five senior generals
who have
the qualifications required as per the respective
constitutional
statutes for such posts" (Article 93). However, the
president may
not remove any of these appointees from their posts during
their
four-year terms, unless there are proven criminal charges
against
them, in which case Cosena must approve the president's
disciplinary action. The president, through the minister
of
defense, prepares all decrees giving officers of the armed
forces
and Carabineros their promotions. To remove an officer,
the
president must refuse the officer's promotion, after the
candidate
has spent a maximum number of years in the current grade.
Officer
assignments and qualifications are made by the military
command in
accordance with the law and regulations of each service.
The army
commander, General Pinochet, has resisted all executive
branch
attempts to amend the constitutional article that prevents
the
president of the republic from removing the armed forces'
commander
in chief.
The positions of the minister of defense and the
subsecretaries
remained effectively unchanged under the Aylwin
government.
However, the Subsecretariat of the Carabineros and the
Subsecretariat of Investigations are subordinate to the
minister of
defense rather than to the minister of interior, as was
formerly
the case. However, new laws call for the Ministry of
Interior to
coordinate the actions of the security forces. The
Southern
Military Region (Región Militar Austral), including the
two
provinces of Magallanes and the Chilean Antarctic
Territory
(Territorio Antártica Chileno), are also directly
subordinate to
the Ministry of Defense.
In addition to Cosena, two other bodies, whose
functions are
specifically limited to the advisory level, deal with
matters of
national defense and security: the Politico-Strategic
Advisory
Council (Consejo Asesor Político-Estratégico--CAPE) and
the
Internal Security Advisory Council (Consejo Asesor de
Seguridad
Interior--CASI). CAPE consists of six military and four
civilian
members and is entrusted with long-range planning of the
defense
and external security of the state. CASI, which consists
of the
minister of interior and seven military members, deals
with
internal security planning.
A combined National Defense Staff (Estado Mayor de la
Defensa
Nacional--EMDN) is also largely an advisory body. The
position of
chief of the EMDN rotates biennially among the army, navy,
and air
force. Each of the armed forces also maintains its own
General
Staff (Estado Mayor General), which carries out standard
generalstaff functions with regard to its own service.
The more recently established Supreme Command of the
Armed
Forces (Comando Supremo de las Fuerzas Armadas--CSFA) is
primarily
a coordinating body, concerned with introducing the
maximum
possible degree of standardization in procurement policies
and the
elimination of duplication of effort at the administrative
level.
It largely superseded the Council of Commanders in Chief
(Junta de
Comandantes en Jefe). The latter entity, established in
the late
1950s but nonoperational under the military regime,
consisted of
the three commanders in chief of the armed forces,
together with
the chief of the EMDN.
Data as of March 1994
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