Dr Cornelia Gräbner, currently on a research trip at the Academic Center for the Memory of Our América in Mexico, has published a new blog post as part of an ongoing series, in collaboration with the Latin America Bureau.

The new post explores documents on and by those members of the armed forces in Latin America who were committed to Human Rights and democratic principles. Many of them suffered persecution, such as imprisonment and / or torture, and many were assassinated.

The image comes from one of the publications of an organisation founded by democratic militaries in exile, which was eventually named after assassinated General Carlos Parts. The publication quotes a poem by Bertolt Brecht: ‘My General / Humans are useful animals. / They know how to fly, how to destroy, how to kill. / But they have one defect: / They can think.’

The CAMeNA archive in Mexico City contains fascinating testimony from members of the region's armed forces who remained loyal to constitutions and democracies and stood up (often at the cost of their rank, their liberty and sometimes their lives) against golpistas, the oligarchies and US-inspired National Security doctrines. Read the full blog post on the website of the Latin America Bureau: The Other Militaries | Latin America Bureau.