Balancing civilian control with intelligence effectiveness in Latin America and the Caribbean: current trends and lessons learned

This article discusses the "quest" of Latin American and Caribbean civilian policymakers to balance democratic civilian control with effectiveness intelligence activities in their countries. Many Latin American countries are new democracies, which transitioned to democracy after horrendous military rules. With the exception of Haiti (1804), many Caribbean nations are new democracies, as well, which transitioned to democracy following the end of colonial rule between 1962 and 1983. Since their transitions to democracy, in their path to consolidation, policymakers in these countries have sought to conduct free and fair elections. guarantee the democratic transfer of political power, develop legitimacy, transform their legal frameworks and economy, and, perhaps, most crucially, bring about democratic civil-military relations (CMR) - that is establishing new security institutions (to include intelligence agencies) that are under democratic civilian control, while also effective