Armed Forces Minister Admiral Sigfrido Pared Perez said that the military is working indirectly to fight crime, through its support of the National Police (NP), which he said is the body in charge of citizens’ safety. He told El Caribe that the Armed Forces is making available its equipment, chauffeurs of vehicles, plus a superior officer in each zone in which they coordinate activities with the NP. Nevertheless, the minister stated that he is against military members patrolling the streets. “They are not trained to carry out services of this kind. There may be extreme cases in which the Armed Forces need to play a more direct role, but those are extreme cases, and I do not think we have reached that point,” he told El Caribe.
According to Admiral Pared Perez, there are 38,000 to 40,000 active military members, a number he considered to be adequate. Of these, 116 are generals. He commented on what he called an irregular situation in the army, in that while it only has 3,500 corporals, there are 5,000 lieutenants.
The admiral also mentioned that the Armed Forces is scrutinizing the 12 loans taken out by his predecessor. Among these financial agreements, the minister viewed one of them as worthy: the US$20-million credit to build a shipyard in Bahia de las Calderas. He said that two tugboats and four small coastguard ships have been built, and some Central American countries have expressed interest in building their ships there. Among the loans whose merits he questions is a US$41-million financial agreement to set up 15 containers as vocational schools.