This document provides a timeline and overview of various military dictatorships and regimes in Latin America between 1810-1990. It describes the rise of "caudillos" or strongman leaders after independence wars in the early 19th century. It then analyzes the legitimization of military rule through national security doctrines and professionalization of armies. The document attempts to develop a typology of militarism, categorizing regimes as dictatorial, straightening, reforming, provisional, constituent, and more based on their political aims and socioeconomic projects. Case studies are presented on prominent dictators and regimes in Brazil, Chile, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Argentina, and other countries across the region during this period.

1. MILITARY NATIONALISM
DICTATORSHIPS AND “DICTOCRACIES”

2. TIMELINE
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1810-1824:
1824-1899:
1836-1839:
1879-1881:
1930-1954:
1931-1979:
1936-1979:
1943-1955:
1944-1986:
1945-1958:
1952-1959:
1953-1957:
1954-1989:
1964-1985:
1964-1982:
1968-1980:
1972-1976:
1973-1990:
1973-1985:
1976-1983:
Wars of Independence
A Century of “Caudillos”
Peruvian-Bolivian Confederation
War of the Pacific
Gétulio Vargas in Brazil
Military Dictatorship in El Salvador
The Somoza Dynasty in Nicaragua
Juan Domingo Perón
Military Regimes in Guatemala
Military Rule in Venezuela
Fulgencio Batista in Cuba
Gustavo Rojas Pinilla in Colombia
Alfredo Stroessner in Paraguay
Brazilian Military Government
Bolivian Military Government
Revolutionary Government in Peru
Guillermo Rodríguez Lara in Ecuador
Pinochet’s Dictatorship
Uruguayan Dictatorship
Argentine Military Junta

3. THE WARS OF INDEPENDENCE

4. THE CAUDILLO

5. THE LEGITIMACY OF THE MILITARY

6. THE PROFESSIONALIZATION OF
ARMIES

7. DOCTRINES OF NATIONAL SECURITY

8. TOWARDS A TYPOLOGY
OF MILITARISMS (I)
• Dictatorial Militarisms: The military attempt to impose
a political position impossible to reach through
civilian consensus.
• Straightening Militarisms: The military aim to
“correct” excesses of civilian – and particularly
populist – administrations. “Bonapartist” regimes.
• Reforming Militarisms: The military pave the way for
new political configurations to arise, which are
remarkably different from those of the past.

9. THE PINOCHET REGIME, 1973-1990

10. GÉTULIO VARGAS IN BRAZIL, 1930-1954

11. JUAN DOMINGO PERÓN, 1943-1955

12. TOWARDS A TYPOLOGY
OF MILITARISMS (II)
• Provisional Military Dictatorships: Followed the
meltdown of a civilian administration, take over
power only to survey the transition.
• Constituent
Military
Dictatorships:
Also
transitory, followed a meltdown, but are grounded
on some form of legal framework.
• Reiterative Military Dictatorships: There is an
alternation of civilian administration and military
regimes, nurtured by the politicization of the latter.

13. GUSTAVO ROJAS PINILLA, 1953-1957

14. THE BRAZILIAN MILITARY
DICTATORSHIP, 1964-1985

15. THE GUATEMALAN REGIMES, 1944-1986

16. TOWARDS A TYPOLOGY
OF MILITARISMS (II)
• Patrimonial Military Dictatorships: Typically linked with a
clan or family, no major socioeconomic project besides
their benefit.
• Top-bottom Reformist Dictatorships: Military believe they
are politically entitled to conduct major reforms that
benefit lower sectors of society.
• Bureaucratic Developmentalist Dictatorships: Regimes
attempt to marginalize the question on foreign capital
and development from social pressures.
• Terrorist Neoliberal Dictatorships: Alliance between
unseen
levels
of
violence
and
orthodox
neoliberalism,
aiming
to
build
a
permanent
counterrevolutionary order.

17. THE SOMOZAS, 1936-1979

18. BOLIVIAN MILITARY
GOVERNMENT, 1964-1982

19. VIDELA AND THE ARGENTINA
JUNTA, 1976-183