Military Insurgency: Reflections on Gringo's Adventure

Abstract

In the vocabulary of Cold War politics, insurgency is associated with the Left while the military stands for law and order. The concept of military insurgency sounds like a contradiction in terms. The recent coups was said to have been arranged by Joker Arroyo in collusion with the military and the CIA to divert public attention. The Gringo affair was dismissed as a ploy to defuse people’s anger at the oil price hike. In the paper, the author thinks that the crisis made people acquiesce to illegal seizures of power and the establishment of a junta as an emergency power. The military, once they have a taste of power, will never again be comfortable in the barracks. Once politicized, they cannot be depoliticized.