Are Latin Americans be concerned that Donald Trump has picked General John Kelly to lead the United States Department of Homeland Security? Kelly headed his department’s Southern Command. US army’s Southern Command – which manages US operational operations across Latin America and the Caribbean.
In reality, US citizens should also be concerned. Appointing a general to defend the country from dangers to liberty and life is a sign of militarisation, not security. Soldiers who have been trained to combat can spot the enemies behind every expression of discontent.
Maybe that’s overstated. There are those who remember that the president Obama has also appointed one of the men in the defence industry to be the secretary for Homeland Security. In December 2013, Jeh Johnson was the General Counsel for the Air Force under president Bill Clinton was appointed to the post. However, Johnson is an attorney, not a military person.
In charge at the helm of Southcom, Kelly will have taken on the habits from the US strategy to address Central America and the Caribbean’s security issues: sending the armed forces of America to train other nations and armed forces in fighting organized crime and drug trafficking.
The US was doing the same thing during Latin America throughout the 1990s and into the 2000s however in the US these activities are entrusted to the police and not the defence sector.
Gen. John Kelly at a briefing on military operations in 2014 about the increase in Central American children seeking entrance into the US. Jorge Lopez/Reuters
If for no other reason, Latin Americans and Caribbeans are to be concerned. Kelly will be a key component of President-elect Donald Trump’s declared policy of treating immigration as the country’s national security concern and not as an humanitarian concern. While at Southcom, the former general might have had a greater focus on the problems of Latin America, but at homeland security, Kelly will not be able to depart from the direction of his boss.
He doesn’t seem to be inclined to. In a few months’ time, Kelly said, “Unless confronted by an immediate, obvious or uncomfortable situation, the tendency of our country is to accept our security in this Western Hemisphere for granted. I think this is an error”.
Kelly’s dislike of Latin America could result in an increase in regional military alliances that were in place prior to his time that range from military training during the School of the Americas and a stoic support for military coups, to openly expressing displeasure with civil authority.
This isn’t that different from the way his Republican colleagues view their neighbors in the South. In March 2015, Arizona Senator John McCain, Chairman of the Committee on Armed Services, said: “We are all particularly concerned about Central America, which is mired by feeble governance and weak security institutions, high rates of corruption, and is home to several of the most violent countries in the world.”
The same panel also heard Kelly maintain his claim that “Southcom is the only government organization that is 100% dedicated to looking at the issues of Latin America and the Caribbean.”
What a pity for Latin America if its relationship with the US government is actually dependent on Southcom.
Human rights violations that are repressive
American citizens are likely not to be thrilled if the protection and protection of their rights as human beings were transferred to the hands of the military.
Latin America knows to worry when the military is in charge. Here are a few scenes of Chile’s coup in 1973. Reuters
James G. Stavridis, the former Southcom director as well as dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, wrote in 2014:
The conflict that divided the 90s regarding the US Army School of the Americas can be an illustration of how difficult it could be to find common ground and also the negative impact that an adversarial relationship among both the US military and the rights community could have.
But, as a result of the United States Human Rights Initiative in 1997, Southcom has been responsible – if not at the expense of other more rational tasks – for pushing the human rights model for the military. In light of the history of civilian violence in Latin America’s armed forces, the need for this to be an important issue for the region, but civilian experts in human rights should be able to handle the task instead of US soldiers.
