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.
