While Latin America's military rulers handed over power to civilian governments in many countries over the past 15 years, former dictators have also retaken power through the ballot box and troops are back on the streets fighting violent crime and growing social unrest.
Fragile democracies, labelled democraduras (one part democracy, two parts dictatorship) rely more and more on brute force to guarantee social and economic stability as austerity measures leave citizens without jobs and essential services. Bolivian troops shot dead 10 miners demonstrating against privatisation plans last December, while Colombia's army attacked coca farmers with grenades and bullets, killing several people as they protested against a government plan to destroy their crops.
In Mexico, President Ernesto Zedillo replaced police chiefs with army generals, while Colombian troops replaced civilian officials at polling booths in October after guerrilla attacks scared the civilians into staying at home. In Mexico, recruitment into the army was increased by 30 per cent after two guerrilla groups appeared, while Colombia's armed forces threatened to strike if they were refused extra hardware to fight 15,000 advancing rebels.
Bolivia's former dictator Hugo Banzer (1971-78) was elected president in June despite hundreds of disappearances and political murders committed during his regime, while Guatemalan general Rios Montt became head of that nation's parliament despite ordering the destruction of 440 Indian villages during his dictatorial rule in 198283.
The scourge of the region's armed forces has been a Spanish judge, Baltasar Garzon, who has opened up international hearings on the torture, disappearance and murder of hundreds of Spanish citizens during military rule in Argentina and Chile. Garzon has called dozens of witnesses to give testimony on army abuses and issued an international arrest warrant against Argentina's former junta leader Jorge Videla, who faces detention by Interpol should he leave the country.
Former Argentinian admiral Adolfo Scilingo was jailed in Madrid by Judge Garzon after testifying on his role as a pilot in the "death flights", when some 2,000 political prisoners were drugged then dropped from helicopters into the Mar de Plata river during military rule between 1976 and 1983.
The military remains unrepentant, despite uncomfortable reminders of past crimes. In Uruguay this year, the nation's army chief refused to obey a court order to open up military barracks for judicial inspection after a tip-off suggested missing bodies may be buried in the grounds. The saga of the restless bones continued last week as the remains of 58 Chileans were uncovered close to a former army detention centre.
Such issues are unlikely to affect the outcome of upcoming elections in the region, however, as Latin America's majority poor choose security over justice and shallow graves remind people of the high price exacted of those who dare challenge the power behind the presidential throne.