Latin America’s Generals Know Their Place

The first time I caught a glimpse of Latin American democracy in peril, it hadn’t even arrived. This was Brazil, in 1983, when the military government was stewarding what General Ernesto Geisel, president from 1974 to 1979, called a “slow, gradual and secure political opening.” Jobless protesters and union militants were in no mood to wait and, blessed by politicized Catholic bishops, capped three days of rage by rushing the governor’s palace in Sao Paulo. Police beat them back and the governor — the first elected by popular vote since the 1960s — threatened to call in federal troops. “The street violence is testing the opening to democracy,” President Joao Baptista Figueiredo, a retired general, warned. After two decades of military rule no one needed a translation.

Sao Paulo’s state house did not fall that day and federal troops did not ride to the rescue. Brazil’s tenuous opening to democracy crawled apace and has not been interrupted in the 35 years since. Despite massive foreign debt, two presidents brought down by impeachment, unprecedented graft, violent demonstrations and a lately hepped-up military presence in Brasilia, the armed forces are not making a comeback. What’s in play today in Brazil and its neighbors is not a return to martial rule, but the parlous state of democracy, and lingering doubts over whether elected leaders can meet the rising expectations of a demanding public without trampling the rule of law or ringing for backup.