Abstract

In Latin America, it has been argued that the involvement of the armed forces in tasks of internal order is mainly a consequence of the overflow of public security. In the case of Chile, although this trend was not observed, there is a growing participation of the military in internal missions. This article argues that this is due to civil neglect of defence matters, where the institutionalization of the roles and missions of the armed forces towards nontraditional functions has been promoted without consolidating the development of new capabilities and regulations on their operations. This has lead to civil irresponsibility, in which the authorities are promoting the deliberate use of the military in internal affairs through specific policies and through the normalization of states of constitutional exception, which generates problems both for the military institutions as for its democratic control.