The issue of civil-military relations has traditionally addressed, as such, the processes of civil-military relations. But the current context in Latin America demands that we separate these processes and understand their differentiation, incidence and influence. It is in the Ministries of Defense where these processes are best exemplified. In the vertical sense, it is the political-military relationship, as a dimension of power, where politicians must exercise the political leadership of defense and all its implications, and the military, as direct advisors to the subject, and executors of the military policy with political supervision. And civil-military relations, as a horizontal dimension, do not imply any relationship of power, but of knowledge. In some countries where defense communities have been created, they can be a space for consultation on this policy and other issues of interest to defense and military affairs.
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The impact of new challenges in security and defense has made it clear that there is a need to establish measures of mutual trust between countries and within those countries themselves. In the mid-1990s, several countries in Latin America addressed this need, publishing their Defense White Papers, in which they stated their positions on the subject of Defense. Central American countries, after ending their internal armed conflicts, began a process of reconciliation, which included the subject of the relationship between armed forces and society. Consequently, the White Papers in these countries, more than just being instruments for implementing measures of trust with neighboring countries, served to establish these measures among the various sectors of society, indicating that the process of political leadership required changes in order to be compatible with existing determinants. This article describes these initial processes in each of the countries and how, from different perspectives, they achieved progress in political-military relations, although with a certain degree of military influence predominating.
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