Armed Forces of Guatemala

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Ejército de Guatemala

The armed forces of Guatemala ( Ejército de Guatemala - Eng. "Heer" or "Army of Guatemala") are subordinate to the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Guatemala . Commander in Chief ( Comandante General ) is the Guatemalan President . The army of Guatemala currently (2007) has a troop strength of around 15,000 men and women. The military expenditures in 2006 amounted to only 0.33% of the gross domestic product , in 2008 they were at 0.4%.

assignment

According to Article 244 of the Guatemalan Constitution , the army is tasked with maintaining the country's independence and sovereignty and defending its territorial integrity. According to the constitution, she is also jointly responsible for internal security.

The peace treaty concluded in December 1996 after the end of the civil war , however, rules out the use of the army inside. With reference to Article 244 of the 1984 Constitution, parts of the army have repeatedly been used in recent years to support the National Police , particularly in the fight against organized crime . Soldiers and police officers regularly patrol together.

organization

The armed forces are administered by the Ministry of Defense ( Ministerio de la Defensa Nacional ) , which has always been headed by a general . The General Staff ( Estado Mayor de la Defensa Nacional ), which is also responsible for the military intelligence service, is responsible for all operational matters and some related support tasks .

The armed forces are not divided into armed forces in the traditional sense, but into three commands:

Although the naval and air forces are part of an integrated armed forces, they also officially use the designations Marina de la Defensa Nacional and Fuerza Aerea Guatemalteca (FAG) and, through this and their own uniforms and ranks, give the impression that it is an independent navy or navy Air Force.

The 1996 peace treaty envisaged a reduction in troop strength from more than 50,000 to 28,000 soldiers. Since 2005, the army has been reformed and greatly reduced in size again. The target strength is now 15,500 soldiers. There is formally a general conscription , in fact it has always been selective and affects the lower social classes of the population. In the wake of the last reforms, the proportion of volunteers has increased significantly. It strives for a further professionalization of the army, which is also in some in recent years, UN - peacekeeping missions was involved abroad.

Land Forces

The land forces are divided into a predominantly territorial and an operational component. In the past, there were 19 military zones (Zonas Militares) for territorial tasks, which were essentially based on the civil administrative districts ( Departamentos ). These zones have been gradually reduced since the peace agreement and replaced by a new system in 2004. The national territory is now divided into six sectors, for each of which an infantry brigade is responsible:

  • 1ª Brigada de Infantería “General Luis García León” (HQ in Flores , responsible for Petén ),
  • 2ª Brigada de Infantería “ General Rafael Carrera ” (HQ Zacapa , east),
  • 3ª Brigada de Infantería “General Manuel Maximiliano Aguilar Santa Maria” (HQ Jutiapa , southeast),
  • 4ª Brigada de Infantería “ General Justo Rufino Barrios ” (HQ Cuyotenango , southwest),
  • 5ª Brigada de Infantería “Mariscal Gregorio Solares” (HQ Las Lagunas, Huehuetenango , northwest).
  • 6ª Brigada de Infantería, “Coronel Antonio José de Irisarri” (HQ Playa Grande Ixcán, Quiché , since December 3, 2009)

These " brigades " take on the administrative and support tasks of the former military zones and have units and units ready that are primarily used for security tasks or provide assistance in the event of a disaster.

In the operational area, the formation of three so-called strategic brigades was planned, but here too some changes have been made. The following associations and commands also partially take on territorial tasks.

The brigades usually have no more than three small battalions and a few support units . These units are supported by a pioneer command , a telecommunications command and a transport battalion .

In the education area, there are, among others, a military academy ( Escuela Politécnica ) and a General Staff College ( Comando Superior de Educación del Ejército - COSEDE )

The land forces have or had (at the time of the civil war) a few main battle tanks of the types M-41A3 , M-8 and RBY-1, transport tanks of the types M113 , V-150 and the Armadillo manufactured in Guatemala . The artillery had around 100 guns of various types and a few anti-aircraft guns . How many of them are still in service today is not known. The infantry has 81 and 120 mm mortars and various anti-tank guns. The standard assault rifle is the US M16 and the Israeli Galil . The other equipment in recent years thanks to (limited) US - military aid improved, especially as radios , night vision goggles , body armor and Kevlar helmets concerns.

Naval forces

The naval forces ( Marina de la Defensa Nacional ) have their headquarters in Guatemala City, which has a command for the Pacific coast ( Puerto Quetzal ) and one for the Caribbean coast ( Puerto Santo Tomás de Castilla ). The naval forces are de facto a small coast guard that z. T. also operates on some inland waters. She has a few patrol boats of the older type whose communications and navigation systems have been modernized with US help in recent years. The naval forces also include a marine infantry unit .

Air Force

FAG emblem

The Air Force ( Fuerza Aerea Guatemalteca ) has one command for the north of the country and one for the south. There are two squadrons in which all fixed-wing aircraft and all helicopters are grouped together. The squadrons of the first squadron are u. a. equipped with A-37B Dragonfly , Pilatus PC-7 , Fokker F-27 and various smaller propeller guns . The helicopter squadron has different versions of the UH-1 and the Bell 206 . The most important tasks are the surveillance of the airspace, the prevention of airborne drug smuggling, air transport and air rescue. The main base is on the military part of Guatemala City International Airport ( La Aurora ). In addition, several other airfields are used (often only as advanced bases), u. a. in Retalhuleu (flight school), Puerto San José (paratroopers), Puerto Barrios , Poptún (special forces) and Flores ( Mundo Maya ).

history

Land Forces

In the political turmoil after independence from Spain and during the Central American confederation attempts that began in 1823 , Guatemala had no standing national army in the contemporary sense. Officially there were small security associations and militias in the individual departments. In addition, various political leaders and groups raised troops if necessary. In this context, General Rafael Carrera became extremely important, as he succeeded in building powerful associations with which he defended Guatemala's existence as a state against separatists and against the power and expansion efforts of neighboring states. Carrera's army was victorious in the battle of San José La Arada ( Chiquimula ) in 1851 against the combined forces of Honduras and El Salvador and in 1853 captured the fortress of Omoa . After Carrera's presidency, the military in Guatemala went into decline. The reforms introduced by the liberal governments of Granados and Barrios from 1871 brought modernization in all areas of Guatemala. With the establishment of the Escuela Politécnica in 1873, the establishment of a well-organized standing army began. Nevertheless, Barrios failed in an attempt to unite Central America by military means, in the 1885 battle of Chalchuapa in El Salvador. Despite this failure, the army was always among the best in Latin America in terms of quality in the following decades, but, as is usual in the region, it was always a significant power factor in domestic politics. The army played a largely inglorious role in the Guatemalan Civil War from 1960 to 1996 . On behalf of the political, economic and military establishment , it fought the guerrillas , in which sections of the exploited and oppressed rural population had organized, with relentless harshness. Numerous units and units of the army let themselves be carried away to arbitrary actions, attacks and massacres in the fight against the often difficult to identify enemy and his alleged helpers, among other things on the grounds that the communist guerrillas had proceeded in a comparable manner. The crimes of the military reached a climax in 1982 under the rule of the dictator Efraín Ríos Montt . In that year the military government also threatened an attack on Belize , which had just been granted independence by the United Kingdom and on which Guatemala was making emphatic, politically not entirely unjustified claims. Only a strengthening of the British military presence prevented the outbreak of war. After the end of the civil war, the signing of the peace treaties and the normalization of relations with Belize, the army was reduced in several stages from over 40,000 to 15,000 soldiers. Today she participates in peace missions of the United Nations , especially in Haiti ( MINUSTAH ) and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo ( MONUC ), supports the police in the fight against organized crime and assists the population in natural disasters .

Naval forces

The small “naval forces” in the Caribbean and the Pacific were built up from 1959 onwards, initially with Swedish and Spanish support , then with US support. They have always limited themselves to a few patrol boats and the surveillance of the coastal and some inland waters. The marine infantry was established in 1964.

Air Force

FAG can look back on a long history. A military flight school ( Academia Nacional de Aviación ) was founded in 1911 with French help. During the First World War, some Guatemalan pilots were trained for a mission in France, but they were no longer deployed in time. In 1929 the Cuerpo de Aviación Militar was founded, which initially had six aircraft. In 1936 it was renamed Cuerpo de Aeronáutica Militar , in 1945 Fuerza Aérea Guatemalteca . In the years that followed, it was expanded primarily with US support. a. equipped with the North American P-51 and older versions of the Cessna T-37 and A-37 . Especially in the 1990s, the FAG suffered from the discontinuation of US military aid. The partial resumption of US support measures is closely related to the fight against drugs and did not go much further than modernizing the still existing A-37 Dragonfly and the helicopters and the corresponding spare parts stores.

museum

In Guatemala City , in the south of the old town (Zona 1), in the fortress San José de Buena Vista, there is an army museum that is well worth seeing .

Important military leaders

literature

  • René De la Pedraja Tomán: The United States and the Armed Forces of Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, 2000-2014 , Jefferson, NC (McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers) 2014. ISBN 978-0-7864-9508- 5
  • Adrian J. English: Armed Forces of Latin America. Their Histories, Development, Present Strength and Military Potential , 2nd ed. London (Jane's) 1985.
  • Robert H. Holden: Armies Without Nations. Public Violence and State Formation in Central America, 1821-1960 , New York (Oxford University Press) 2004. ISBN 978-0-19516120-5

Web links

Commons : Guatemalan Armed Forces  - Collection of images, videos and audio files