Listin Diario political analyst Orlando Gil writes: “The political responsibility was that of President Mejia, but the institutional responsibility belonged to the military chiefs who were unable to resist the evident degrading of the armed forces. In his analysis today, Gil contrasts the collapse of institutionalism within the military under Mejia and his armed forces chief Soto Jimenez, to the bolstering of institutionalism that had occurred under former President Antonio Guzman and his armed forces chief, General Adriano Valdez Hilario.
“President Hipolito Mejia did not have that assistance and he was allowed to act with the uninhibited attitude of a recent recruit to the army. All those damaging effects to institutionalism were the consequence of a quick-tempered disposition that could have been checked if it had met with superior intelligence and had acted in time. Now he is stuck in this mess and the finale cannot be for him just to bear his chest and let that all the shots be fired at him. The burden must be shared,” he explains. Gil says that the military are already effecting skillful maneuvers in their statements that they were carrying out superior orders, and without taking note that the person giving the orders was a neophyte and that it was up to them to be responsible, alert and give guidance.