Domestic military missions in Latin America: Civil-military relations and the perpetuation of democratic deficits

Abstract Latin American militaries are today in many regards inoperative and obsolete as an instrument of defence. Yet, they seek to maintain their organisational power privileges. Governments, on the other hand, lack adequate means fight criminality, persisting poverty social inequality. In apparent win-win situation, governments have used military a wildcard step where civilian state capacity falls short, including for urban border patrols, literacy campaigns collect garbage, among tasks. The military's manifold internal use has been defended mainly based pragmatic reasons. We argue instead that ostensive pareto optimality between had negative effects civil-military relations from democratic governance point view takes into consideration efficiency effectiveness how delivers basic services across different policy areas.