The Impact of Amnesty Laws on Civil-Military Relations in Brazil and Chile
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- At the point of each country’s transition from military rule to democratically-elected, civilian leadership in 1990, Brazil appeared to be better positioned than Chile to consolidate its democracy. The former dictator Augusto Pinochet remained Commander in Chief of the Chilean Army and had written military prerogatives into the constitution. In contrast, the Brazilian military could only influence the Brazilian constitution indirectly as it was being written by civilians. In both countries, amnesty laws protected members of the military from prosecution for crimes committed under military rule. Today, the Chilean military’s political role is nonexistent, while officers of the Brazilian military participate in political debates and even attempt to influence election administration. Chile has prosecuted thousands of members of the military for crimes committed during military rule, circumventing the amnesty law, while Brazil has prosecuted none. I argue that these prosecutions contributed to civilian control over the military in Chile, and are not just a byproduct of overall advances in civilian control. Chile’s court structure permitted individual prosecutions to serve as intermediate focal points that allowed civilians and the military in Chile to negotiate a new, less political role for the military in Chile. Brazil’s legislative structure, coupled with the role of precedents and binding decisions in the judicial system, removed these intermediate focal points. Circumventing the amnesty law and prosecuting human rights abuses in Chile established a norm of military subordination to civilian control, while the Brazilian military used the amnesty law to remain involved in political affairs.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Publication date | November 16, 2022; June 1, 2022 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Gallagher, Sean |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor | Díaz-Cayeros, Alberto |
| Thesis advisor | Trinkunas, Harold |
Subjects
| Subject | Civil-military relations |
|---|---|
| Subject | Brazil |
| Subject | Chile |
| Subject | Amnesty > Law and legislation |
| Subject | Trials (Crimes against humanity) |
| Genre | Text |
| Genre | Thesis |
Bibliographic information
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Preferred citation
- Preferred citation
- Gallagher, S. (2022). The Impact of Amnesty Laws on Civil-Military Relations in Brazil and Chile. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at https://purl.stanford.edu/sw964kp1797
Collection
Stanford University, Center for Latin American Studies, Masters Degree Thesis
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- Contact
- gallagher.seanh@gmail.com
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