Continuismo

Continuismo (English: Continuism) is the practice by incumbents of keeping themselves in office beyond the legal term.[1][2] Some Latin American heads of state indefinitely extend their rule by way of reducing or abolishing term limits,[3] via constitutional revision. Examples are (Juan Perón, Argentina; Alfredo Stroessner, Paraguay; Evo Morales, Bolivia). Another tactic is legislative enactment, such as with (Jorge Ubico, Guatemala in 1941). A third tactic is by plebiscite (Carlos Castillo Armas, Guatemala [1954]) and Marcos Pérez Jiménez ,Venezuela, 1958)) and the 1988 failed attempt by Augusto Pinochet in Chile. A further type is internal coup (Getulio Vargas, Brazil). Yet another way is the imposition of a weak successor candidate allowing rule by the outgoing incumbent (Emilio Portes Gil and Abelardo Rodríguez in Mexico allowing Plutarco Elías Calles, "el jefe máximo", to continue ruling, a period known as the Maximato). The extension of family rule occurred in Nicaragua with the Somoza family; in Argentina with Juan Perón; and then more recently Nestor Kirchner and his wife Cristina Fernández de Kirchner; and in Cuba with Fidel Castro and his brother Raúl Castro.[4] Despite Peru's one term limit established by its 1979 constitution, Alberto Fujimori illegally extended his rule to ten years through two re-elections.[2]

See also

Further reading

  • "Continuismo" in Latin American Political Dictionary, edited by Ernest E. Rossi and Jack C. Plano. (1980)
  • Ebel, Roland H. "Continuismo" in Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture, vol. 2, p. 257. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons 1996.
  • Fitzgibbon, Russell H. "Continuismo" in Central America and the Caribbean," Inter-American Quarterly 2 (July 1940): 56-74/

References

  1. ↑ Roland H. Ebel. "Continuismo" in Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture, vol. 2, p. 257. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons 1996.
  2. 1 2 Conaghan, Catherine M. (2006). Fujimori's Peru. Univ. of Pittsburgh Press. ISBN 0-8229-5943-7. page 8
  3. ↑ Russell F. Fitzgibbon, "Continuismo: The Search for Political Longevity" in Caudillos: Dictators in Spanish America, Hugh M. Hamill, ed. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press 1992, p. 211.
  4. ↑ Ebel, "Continuismo" p. 257.
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