The Social Revolt Against Military Service
Pelao Carvallo1
The pandemic has allowed the Chilean Ministry of Defense to conceal the armed forces' major defeat: the end of mandatory military service (SMO) due to widespread resistance to the process. The Chilean Armed Forces and Law Enforcement are among the major institutions defeated by the social uprising that began in October 2019.
On the morning of October 18, 2019, the day of the Social Uprising in Chile, the General Directorate of National Mobilization (DGMN) announced the call-up of 81661 young people to fulfill mandatory military service.[1]This represented 70% of the conscription base for that year, meaning all men turning 18 that year. A month later, on November 19, the same DGMN reported that 109.921 young men had been compulsorily called up for mandatory military service, representing 95% of the conscription base.[2]This maneuver of social pressure on a youth that was demonstrating in the streets and squares of the country, exposing eyes, life and freedom, was answered with demonstrations, protests, burning and looting of recruitment cantons, but mainly by not showing up to that call, managing to first extend the time of presenting documents to be exempted from November 30 to December 31 of that year and later that -with the excuse of the pandemic- the carrying out of the SMO during the year 2020.
Disobedience
The rejection of mandatory military service has a long history. The unpunished murder of Pedro Soto Tapia[3] He argued in the mid-90s for the need to abolish it. The Ricardo Lagos government negotiated a “modernization” that maintained privileges and impunity for military commanders, through a forum with one objective: legal reform under the slogan “Voluntary in principle, Mandatory as a last resort.”[4]The Armed Forces have been receiving this subsidy in excess, generating more resistance since it is clear in the collective consciousness that the "lottery"[5] Being called to appear never affects young people who live in the country's wealthy communes, those "3 communes".
The rejection grew after high school students took the time and held assemblies to discuss the exploitation they suffered, one example being mandatory military service. The 2001 backpack protest.[6] And the creation of ACES (Coordinating Assembly of Secondary School Students) reflects this growth. On the other hand, the persistence of the defiant proposal of conscientious objection, championed by the "Neither Helmet Nor Uniform" movement, is also noteworthy.[7] And other components of the MAOC (Antimilitarist Movement of Conscientious Objection) in the first half of the 2000s helped establish the idea that rejecting mandatory military service by not participating in it was possible and effective. The impunity surrounding the atrocities committed during mandatory military service led to even greater practical rejection by young people, who no longer wanted to become mere numbers in a death squad like the 44 conscripts of Antuco.[8] senselessly murdered in 2005. There was such impunity on that issue that neither the regiment commander, nor the army's chief general, nor the defense minister at the time were questioned or resigned from their posts.
The student mobilizations, especially among secondary school students, of 2006, 2011, and 2018, particularly during the occupations of high schools, allowed for the circulation of a demilitarized perspective on school and life, along with a profound critique of what mandatory military service (SMO) represents. Of course, the military authorities explained this decrease in SMO with other reasons: population decline, greater access to universities, and a larger job market.[9]They even hinted that they had "planned" for this.
The idea that “the numbers speak for themselves” is a fallacy that the Chilean military knows—and uses—very well: regarding the collapse of “voluntary” service in mandatory military service, they don't provide clear figures but rather decontextualized percentages, always approximate amounts, and the figures they give to one media outlet are not necessarily the same as those given to others. They also know that no one in the press will verify the figures they provide, since they generally only repeat press reports.
The contradictory data
By 2019, before the social uprising of October, rejection of mandatory military service had increased as new abuses and deadly crimes were uncovered.[10][11] In June 2019, according to official figures, volunteers barely covered 28,99% of the conscript requirement for that year, which stood at 11.067 conscripts.[12]The total number of volunteers for 2019 was only revealed in October 2020 by the Head of Recruitment of the DGMN, Colonel Fredy Kirst.[13] who declared that only 8.926 people volunteered for mandatory military service in 2019. This represented 7,2% of the available pool that year. This is a decrease from 12,3% in 2018 to 7,2% the following year, a proportional drop of 41,5%.
This decrease coincides with what happened in previous years: in October 2018, La Tercera reported the statements of General Jorge Morales, director of the DGMN, given before the defense committee of the Chamber of Deputies[14]There he stated that 17.308 young people had begun the process to voluntarily perform mandatory military service; this figure was 12,3% of the total number of young men born in 1999. [15], generation summoned that year.
Finally, General Morales stated that only 10.303 young people were drafted, of whom 1.687 were women. This figure, 10.303, represented 60% of those who began the voluntary enlistment process that year. He also said that of the total number of young people who had NOT volunteered, 81.661 were forced to complete the selection process for mandatory military service through a "lottery." Therefore, 27.032 young people, 21,4% of the total of that generation of 125952, were not bothered in any way by the DGMN (General Directorate of National Mobilization). 21,4%, coincidentally, a similar percentage to that obtained by the "Reject" option nationwide in the October plebiscite.[16]Since it is impossible to know which municipalities that 21% of young people not required for mandatory military service corresponds to, we can only speculate.
An additional difficulty in understanding the current situation of mandatory military service is that the data provided by the military personnel in charge of the issue is contradictory. La Tercera, in that same article, states that the Armed Forces require 12 conscripts annually… a simple review of the official data would reveal that this figure, 12, was last required in 2015.[17] and that since that year, the figure was 11. This decrease was from 21,8% of voluntary participation in 2007 in the total conscription base (the total number of young men of that generation) to 13,2% in 2014.
The official figures differ from one document to another. Regarding 2018, one document states that 12.563 people volunteered for mandatory military service, while the number of conscripts required was 10.800.[18]These figures are very different from those presented by General Morales, and lower. Another official document indicates that 15.517 young people volunteered, and that 11.152 were required to be quartered, with 100% compliance.[19]The Minister of Defense at the time, Espina, gave the figure of 10.500 as the number of people quartered in barracks.[20] Which of these figures was accurate for 2018? The press doesn't seem to care.
The DGMN's explanations for this massive and permanent insubordination only very slightly considered the effect of the Social Uprising of October 2019[21]The connection between the social revolt and the refusal to comply with mandatory military service is evident, so much so that it is a product of the protests[22]demonstrations and destruction of recruitment camps[23][24]The DGMN had to extend the excuses process in November.[25] of those who were “selected” to complete the mandatory military service selection process by December 31 of that year. Their insubordination was clear, as was their refusal to participate in the repression and murder of social activists embodied at that time, and to this day, by the Armed Forces responsible for maintaining the states of emergency declared since October.[26]That rejection also extends to the Carabineros, Chile's militarized police force.[27].
inconsistencies
The inconsistency in the conscription figures provided by the DGMN (General Directorate of National Mobilization) becomes apparent when comparing the official 2019 data with statements from the head of recruitment and information regarding military service. The DGMN required 11.067 conscripts, but by June 2019, they had only reached 28,99% of the required number. In October of that year, Colonel Kirst stated that they had 8.926 recruits (81% of the required number, a 19% decrease). This, in turn, contradicted the military service figures given in September of that year, which indicated 6.702 young men performing mandatory military service.[28] – 1.201 of those individuals being women – this figure (6.702) represents 58% of what was announced as required for that generation (and a decrease of 42%). What happened to those 2224 people missing from the calculation (8.926-6.702)? Did they refuse to participate in mandatory military service, practice conscientious objection? Or did the Armed Forces prefer to save themselves the expense and the information?
The percentage of conscripts and volunteers (because we are told that all women in the SMO are volunteers) in that year's conscription is also unclear, since Colonel Kirst pointed out[29] In October, it was found that those required to complete the SMO procedures represented 70 to 80% of the available base in 2019. [30]That is, between 80.027 and 99.460 young people were bothered. In November, as we said at the beginning, Lo Presti would tell a different story, with different numbers.
The rejection of mandatory military service (SMO) is even greater for the 2020 recruitment drive, despite lower requirements, according to the same statements. Voluntary service only attracted 3.969 people, as reported by Army Colonel Fredy Kurst, head of the Recruitment Department of the General Directorate of National Mobilization. This figure represents a 55,5% decrease compared to the 8.926 who served during the same period last year. He also noted that 39.924 young men were selected by lottery, 35% of the total pool, because—and this is important—the Armed Forces lowered their conscript requirements. This time, the percentage of those not affected by the SMO—whether through the lottery or voluntary service—reached 56.3% of the total, a nod to the middle class.
Apparently, the number of conscripts sought for 2021 is the same as this year, between 6.500 and 7.000 young men. The lack of conscription is evident in this year's call for reservists.[31] (and the past under the pretext of the state of siege against the Revolt) and in the extension of the conscription period of last year[32]The collapse of the SMO is total, so much so that this year the Chilean Air Force completely suspended conscription.[33]
This decrease in conscription requirements and military enlistments is not reflected in the national budget allocated to the DGMN for 2021, as the reduction for this Directorate only reaches 5,8% compared to the previous year. [34] and the reduction in the national budget for the Army (the largest consumer of conscription) is only 6.6%.[35] The 55% decrease in conscripts is not accurately reflected in the budget, nor is the decrease in the requirement. This is not surprising, since official figures still present a conscription target of 11.349 conscripts for 2020.[36].
What's missing from the discussion
Military service in Chile has always been mandatory. Voluntary service exists within the framework of legal obligation, and for several years now, mandatory service—through a lottery system—has been used to fill the gap created by the lack of volunteers. The Armed Forces use mandatory military service to recruit those they need to become professional soldiers, a category that currently forms the backbone of the Armed Forces personnel. Recruitment has no other objective than to sustain military spending and supply future professional soldiers.
The rejection of mandatory military service is a factor in this decrease in volunteers for an essentially compulsory military service.[37] This manifests itself in a practical form of insubordination that, on the one hand, resorts to legal excuses to avoid mandatory military service, and on the other, to simply not showing up for exemption, selection, or conscription. They simply don't appear. Military pressure on the Public Prosecutor's Office to prosecute this insubordination had no effect, as of 2016.[38]This insubordination is also a defense of the life and dignity of people exposed to mandatory military service, whose characteristics of torture, mistreatment and death do not disappear.[39]
All these issues—the right to conscientious objection, the rejection of mandatory military service, and the persistent obligation of military service despite the declarations and mythology of voluntariness disseminated by the Armed Forces—are not part of the pre-constitutional discussions on the role of the Armed Forces and Defense taking place in the press these days, especially in El Mostrador. The opinions of those who oppose a militarized vision of the country are being suppressed, whether they are conscientious objectors, draft dodgers, draft resisters, antimilitarists, people who have organized to demilitarize the country, or family members and victims of the Armed Forces and mandatory military service in particular. This discussion in the press so far has a profound militaristic bias, influenced by the lobbying of the Armed Forces, favoring the armed resolution of conflicts, and seeking to maintain the status quo that benefits the de facto power in Chile known as the Armed Forces and Law Enforcement. The real discussion about the Armed Forces is made by people deserting, becoming reluctant, practicing insubordination, and practically declaring their conscientious objection.
1-Antimilitarist Assembly of the Chilean Region and Antimilitarist Network of Latin America and the Caribbean, Ramalc. December 15, 2020
[1] https://www.publimetro.cl/cl/social/2018/10/19/servicio-militar-2019-sorteo-general.html
[2] https://www.latercera.com/nacional/noticia/colapso-cantones-eximirse-del-servicio-militar/907894/
[3] https://www.biobiochile.cl/noticias/2014/01/27/aseguran-tener-nuevos-antecedentes-sobre-la-muerte-de-conscripto-pedro-soto-tapia.shtml
[4] https://obtienearchivo.bcn.cl/obtienearchivo?id=recursoslegales/10221.3/3839/2/HL20045.pdf
[5] Since there are not enough volunteers to cover the entire required conscription, the General Directorate of National Mobilization (DGMN) holds a lottery among non-volunteers who turn 18 in the current year, and in that lottery, those who must carry out the selection process for the SMO are chosen.
[6] https://juventudsedej.wordpress.com/2013/09/24/el-mochilazo-del-2001-instala-la-discusion-sobre-lo-que-se-considera-como-derechos-entrevista-a-claudio-duarte-13/
[7] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDciWZ4PKrg https://trincheradelaimagen.wordpress.com/2005/09/28/objetores-de-conciencia/
[8] https://www.biobiochile.cl/noticias/2015/01/24/ejercito-asegura-nueva-evaluacion-medica-a-soldado-sobreviviente-en-tragedia-del-2005-en-antuco.shtml
[9] 2007-2014 https://www.latercera.com/noticia/las-razones-que-han-reducido-a-casi-la-mitad-los-voluntarios-al-servicio-militar/
[10] https://www.biobiochile.cl/noticias/nacional/region-de-tarapaca/2019/03/16/tres-militares-mueren-tras-tiroteo-en-regimiento-iquique.shtml
[11] https://www.biobiochile.cl/noticias/nacional/region-de-antofagasta/2019/08/03/video-muestra-rito-donde-militares-agreden-a-conscriptos-ejercito-anuncia-investigacion.shtml
[12] https://www.dipres.gob.cl/597/articles-196510_doc_pdf.pdf
[13] https://www.radiosago.cl/inscripcion-voluntaria-al-servicio-militar-baja-55-respecto-del-ano-pasado/
[14] https://www.latercera.com/nacional/noticia/mujeres-apuntalan-la-cuota-anual-del-servicio-militar/379080/
[15] 126001, according to INE data
[16] https://pv.servelelecciones.cl/
[17] https://www.dipres.gob.cl/597/articles-193320_doc_pdf.pdf
[18] https://www.dipres.gob.cl/597/articles-193320_doc_pdf.pdf
[19] https://www.dipres.gob.cl/597/articles-196510_doc_pdf.pdf
[20] https://www.defensa.cl/noticias/ceremonia-de-acuartelamiento-11-mil-jovenes-cumpliran-este-ano-con-el-servicio-militar/
[21] https://www.clacso.org/la-primavera-andina-florece-en-pandemia/
[22] https://www.efe.com/efe/america/politica/no-queremos-ser-milicos-clamor-juvenil-contra-el-servicio-militar-en-chile/20000035-4118139
[23] https://www.biobiochile.cl/noticias/nacional/region-de-antofagasta/2019/11/27/incendio-afecta-al-canton-de-reclutamiento-de-calama.shtml y https://www.radiosago.cl/completamente-saqueada-y-destrozada-resulto-la-oficina-del-canton-de-reclutamiento/
[24] https://www.defensa.com/chile/fuerzas-armadas-chile-rechazan-ataques-instalaciones-defienden
[25] https://www.biobiochile.cl/noticias/nacional/chile/2019/11/20/extienden-hasta-el-30-de-diciembre-plazo-para-sacarse-el-servicio-militar-tras-colapso-de-oficinas.shtml
[26] https://www.uchile.cl/noticias/169428/academicos-advierten-sobre-las-limitaciones-del-estado-de-excepcion#:~:text=Durante%20m%C3%A1s%20de%20seis%20meses,a%20la%20pandemia%20del%20coronavirus.
[27] https://www.cnnchile.com/pais/postulaciones-escuela-carabineros-bajan-71_20200906/
[28] https://www.latercera.com/nacional/noticia/comienza-acuartelamiento-de-6700-jovenes-para-servicio-militar-en-el-ejercito/FRLENUT3NZESPFOBPI4F25TNXA/
[29] https://www.emol.com/noticias/Nacional/2020/10/21/1001302/Servicio-Militar-disminucion.htmlSee printed edition
[30] a universe of 124325 young people, according to INE data),
[31] https://www.infodefensa.com/latam/2020/06/17/noticia-chile-convocara-reservistas-apoyar-estado-catastrofe.html
[32] https://elpinguino.com/noticia/2020/08/27/entregan-reconocimiento-a-soldados-conscriptos-que-extendieron-su-servicio-militar
[33] https://www.latercera.com/nacional/noticia/comienza-acuartelamiento-de-6700-jovenes-para-servicio-militar-en-el-ejercito/FRLENUT3NZESPFOBPI4F25TNXA/
[34] https://www.infodefensa.com/latam/2020/10/06/noticia-chile-destinara-millones-dolares-presupuesto-defensa.html
[35] https://www.defensa.com/chile/chile-disminuye-presupuesto-defensa-para-2021
[36] https://www.dipres.gob.cl/597/articles-196510_doc_pdf.pdf
[37] Since 2010, the "lottery" has affected, on average, 70% of young people in each generation each year, compared to a voluntary participation rate that decreases every year.
[38] https://www.latercera.com/noticia/primera-vez-defensa-denuncia-los-remisos-del-servicio-militar/
[39] https://www.eldesconcierto.cl/nacional/2020/09/18/abusos-y-suicidios-como-las-fuerzas-armadas-y-de-orden-siguen-reproduciendo-la-violencia-al-interior-de-sus-filas.html
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