Orlando J. Pérez

I wrote in The Dallas Morning News: “Turning the armed forces toward specific domestic political targets breaches a core norm: an apolitical military. Latin American history is clear. Internal security missions make generals central actors in domestic governance.”
www.dallasnews.com/opinion/comm...

Do “normies” watch late night TV?

Panama in China-US Strategic Competition Insights from Orlando J. Pérez.

Panama in China-US Strategic Competition thediplomat.com/2025/09/pana... "Suppose Panama can show that a sovereignty-first, rules-based posture unlocks U.S. and allied capital without foreclosing commercial ties to China."

Opinion | Brazil Just Succeeded Where America Failed

Brazil Just Succeeded Where America Failed www.nytimes.com/2025/09/12/o... “With all its flaws, Brazilian democracy is healthier today than America’s. Keenly aware of their country’s authoritarian past, Brazil’s judicial and political authorities did not take democracy for granted.”

more than a decade of public scholarship has taught me that the moments when it's most tempting to react strongly and quickly are the ones when it's most useful to step back, seek context, and force yourself to think slowly. i don't always follow it, but those are my guidelines for myself.

Only Trump can make John Bolton seem sympathetic! 🙄

And Mulino has already made his strategic decision: US is the preferred partner…🤷🏻‍♂️

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9/ These Latin American examples show the pitfalls of turning soldiers into policemen. They often blur institutional boundaries, weaken civilian policing, and chip away at democratic norms.

8/ Effectiveness vs. legitimacy: Militarization can reduce visible crime in the short term but often degrades investigative capacity and police professionalism, which harms long-run security. #Mexico’s expansion of military roles beyond security further weakens civilian institutions.

7/ Rule-of-law trade-offs: States of exception or NIAC (non-international armed conflict) labels, as declared in #Ecuador, can lower rights protections and judicial scrutiny.

6/ In #ElSalvador, sustained militarized policing consolidates executive dominance, sidelines judicial oversight, and habituates the armed forces and police to extraordinary powers.

5/ Outcomes on crime are mixed; the governance trade-offs are clearer. #Mexico’s security policy under #AMLO normalized military roles far beyond policing, concentrating budgets and administrative tasks in the armed forces and weakening civilian agencies.

4/ Repeated internal missions expand military leverage over civilians. #Brazil’s GLO (Garantia da Lei e da Ordem) gives the presidency a legal on-ramp to grant soldiers temporary police powers. While GLO should be “episodic.” The practice has become a feature of Brazilian democracy.

3/ Militarized policing is politically attractive yet institutionally costly. Publics often trust armies more than police, which tempts executives to deploy soldiers for street crime and order maintenance. That choice tends to raise the risk of abuses, blur accountability, and slow police reform.

The Generals’ Labyrinth: Crime and the Military in Mexico | International Crisis Group Mexico’s outgoing president has deployed more soldiers than ever to fight crime. But levels of violence remain high. His successor should set limits to the military’s role in public safety while worki...

2/ Domestic deployments of military forces risk undermining civilian control and normalizing the use of force in everyday governance. Latin America provides plenty of evidence for the corrosive effect of militarizing public security. www.crisisgroup.org/latin-americ...

1/ The @deptofdefense.govmirrors.com is weighing a “Domestic Civil Disturbance Quick Reaction Force.” 600 Guard troops split between Alabama and Arizona, deployable in one hour. 🧵https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/08/12/national-guard-civil-unrest/

One thing that didn't make it into today's piece:

Washington, DC already has by far the highest number of law enforcement officers per capita of any city of 250k+.

Deploying the National Guard to DC over crime rates that are actually falling isn’t about safety—it’s about politics. Militarizing domestic policing erodes civilian control & normalizes troops in the streets. That’s a dangerous precedent in a democracy.

Is DC crime ‘totally out of control,' as Trump said? What the numbers show President Donald Trump called D.C. crime “ridiculous” in remarks Wednesday in the Oval Office. He threatened to federalize the police department and even bring in National Guard troops. But Metropolit...

Claims of a DC “crime wave” ignore the facts: violent crime is down ~26% this year, homicides down 12%, robberies down 28%. 2025 is on track for some of the lowest levels in decades. Fear sells—facts don’t! www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/i...

NYT & CNN en Español have stories on it.

The ghosts of Gaitán (1948), Galán (1989), and Gómez Hurtado (1995) still haunt #Colombia’s democracy. The assassination of presidential hopeful Miguel Uribe is a stark reminder that democracy cannot thrive when bullets silence ballots.

4⃣ Today, #Salvadorans who oppose #Bukele or suffer from his policies have virtually no independent court, legislature, or media to turn to – a hallmark of authoritarian rule.

3⃣ #Bukele insists he is empowering the people, but in practice, he has eliminated nearly all avenues for the people to change or check their leader lawfully.

2⃣ It also requires respect for pluralism, civil liberties, and checks and balances to protect against the “tyranny of the majority.”

#ELSalvador today presents a conceptual paradox: Can a regime with overwhelming popular support still be a democracy in decline?
1⃣ Democracy requires more than just majority support at the ballot box. 🧵

The silence from @StateDept @SecRubio @WHAAsstSecty
about @nayibbukele’s move to eliminate any limits on presidential reelection is deafening! The US has now dropped even the pretense of caring about democracy in #ElSalvador. You cannot complain about some authoritarians while enabling others.

The Trump Administration is finding out that if you live by the crazies, you die by the crazies!

“USAID has officially ceased operations.” The decision to dismantle USAID will compromise the country’s national security. This is the very definition of short-sightedness! We will come to realize this decision was unwise as China steps forward to fill the vacuum.

Thank you for the engagement.