The President of the Republic, Bernardo Arévalo, participated this Sunday, September 1, in the commemoration of the 151st anniversary of the Polytechnic School and the Day of the Cadet, and in his speech he stressed that there must be a transformation in the Army, since they have identified several weaknesses.
Arévalo said that the modernization of the State begins with the armies, and that the Polytechnic School was founded for this purpose.
He added that military academies were created with modernity to train professional armies and to defend states, “leaving behind military practices based on tradition rather than science.”
He said that armies have to adapt to the changes that societies face over time and that is why “Military institutions go through constant processes of evolution, of aspects such as military doctrine, military values, the implementation of methods, technologies and pedagogical techniques as an imperative need for the military and armies to adapt their actions to the needs of the Nation and society.”
“Military leaders and those of us who have the privilege of commanding the Guatemalan Army must be demanding regarding the quality and relevance of the training and professionalization processes of military personnel, to the extent that they are the fundamental requirement for the modernization of the armed forces as an expression of national power,” said the president.
In this regard, Arévalo reported that together with the military commanders they made a “careful analysis” of the institutional situation of the Guatemalan Army. “We identified some critical weaknesses that needed to be addressed if we want to develop practices that protect the philosophical principles of the military career and if we want to advance in the consolidation of a military institutionality that is effectively at the service of a democratic state.”
The specific order
He stated: “Among those weaknesses There are practices that put the military institution at the service of politicians in office and other actors non-transparent, or even criminal.”
“These are practices that undermine the institutionality of the Army, such as deciding on promotions, especially to generals, or assigning positions of great responsibility based on cronyism or political collusion,” said Arévalo.
He added that for this reason he has “been emphatic in the need to correct these practices within the institution, since as I expressed in my speech on Army Day on June 30, the Army is not anyone’s spoils, since it belongs to the people of Guatemala, in that sense, I demand and order that all military personnel refrain from associating with persons or groups whose interests or behaviors contravene and hinder the development within the framework of professional values and meritocratic and democratic institutional principles professed by the Guatemalan Army.”
He stressed that, eight months after taking office as President of the Republic and Commander General of the Army, “I can tell you with complete confidence and thanks to the work carried out in conjunction with the Army command, that we have reestablished apoliticality as the guiding principle of the Army’s institutionality.”
He said that since the first appointments at the beginning of his government, the officers “were carefully selected taking into account the meritocratic indicators necessary” to fill the positions.
For further reading: Arévalo states during the Army parade that the institution “is not anyone’s spoils”
“I order the Minister of Defense and the entire Army command to carry out a thorough review of the current military doctrine to adapt it to the current needs of the democratic and inclusive development of the Nation. This will involve the review and updating of the different military training curricula,” he added.
He said that every course and military cycle should include subjects on human rights, women’s rights and international humanitarian law.
He added that since January 14, 2024, they have been working on plans that will allow them to provide Guatemalan society with a “professional, transparent, meritocratic Army, with well-founded democratic values and principles, guarantors and respecters of human rights.”
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