Abstract

SALAZAR, Robinson. Policialization of the Army and Zero Tolerance for Popular Movements in Latin America. Frónesis [online]. 2009, vol.16, n.2, pp.274-290. ISSN 1315-6268.

The Latin American National Security Doctrine (NSD) was implemented at the boom time for armed movements and national-popular liberation struggles, in order to neutralize and destroy the insurgency; a few years later, as part of the continuity of hegemonic reasoning, low-intensity warfare (LIW) was applied to countries with a significant degree of advance in their struggles and that had reached power, as in the cases of Nicaragua and the Central American area, which dismantled popular movements and killed hundreds of thousands of activists. Today, as part of the war-like, repressive rationality from the State, the Police State and Zero Tolerance are carried out as a continuation of this interventionist U.S. policy, couched in the Manhattan Institute and conservative North American sectors who fly the flag of direct confrontation against organized crime, terrorism and radical populism, which means the social construction of the enemy as a banner for annihilating and criminalizing popular protests in Central America, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Paraguay and Argentina.

Keywords : Militarism; zero tolerance; social movements and State.