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Apronunciamiento[a] is a form of military rebellion orcoup d'état particularly associated withSpain,Portugal andIbero-America, especially in the 19th century.
Thepronunciamiento is one category ofpraetorianism: the practice of military figures acting as political actors in their own right, rather than as the politically-neutral instrument of civilian government. In a classic coup d'état a rebel faction which controls some critical element of the armed forces seizes control of the state by a sudden movement, organized and executed in stealth. Apronunciamiento, in contrast, is by definition a public performance designed to rally public opinion to a dissident faction. A group of military officers, often mid-ranking,publicly declare their opposition to the current government (head of state and/or cabinet, who may be legally elected civilians or the result of a previous coup).Pronunciamientos are normally 'bloodless' or close to it, intending to bring about a change in government or regime bythreatening violence and publicly demonstrating the lack of support for a given government, rather than the swift actual violence of a normal coup. The goal may be, as in the classic coup, to install one of the military rebels in power. But more often its aim is to tip the balance of public opinion so that a favoured prominent civilian opposition leader might be called to form a government.
Stanley Payne characterises thepronunciamiento, in contrast to the "classic military coup", thus:
"Thepronunciamiento was sometimes oblique and indirect, consisting of no more than strong statements, encouragements, or threats by powerful generals intended to influence the government's policy. However, the most spectacular and importantpronunciamientos were those that involved some form of force. Ordinarily, the armedpronunciamiento was a revolt by one section of the Army –sometimes a very small section– which raised the flag of rebellion in its district and hoped that its example would lead other units to rally round, or would at least break the government's nerve".[1]
Generally, apronunciamento originated with a small number of officers motivated by fear of the current government's persecution of political dissidents, or of its perceived inability to resist invasion or revolution. This small group would then spend a preparatory period "sounding out" the larger community of officers to determine if their views are widely shared. After thepronunciamiento the would-be rebel officers then wait for the rest of the armed forces to declare for or against the government.[2] There is no fighting at this point; if the rebellion has no support the organizers lose. They may have to flee the country or retire from the armed forces, or they may be arrested, and typically they would face a lenient fate. If the bulk of the armed forces declare in favor of thepronunciamiento the government resigns. It is similar to avote of no-confidence, except that it is issued by the armed forces, not by the legislature.
The origins of thepronunciamiento lie in theSpanish and Portuguese resistance to Napoleonic rule. TheNapoleonic Wars created the conditions for the intervention of the military in aplebiscitary act of 'no-confidence' on the presumed behalf of the nation. The wars had brought together large groups of ordinary men from all across a given state, while at the same time exposing them en masse to political ideas. Conscription to fight a foreign occupier or invader subjected individuals from different corners of themultiethnic dynastic state to similar experiences, generating a practical sense of belonging to one same 'nation'.[3][4] After brief experiences of democratic government and constitutional liberties, 1814-15 saw the restoration ofabsolute monarchy under dynastic houses such as theBourbons orHabsburgs. This gave rise to the sentiment that the conscript army of citizen-soldiers (seeLevée en masse andMilicia Nacional) was a truer expression of the people and the nation than the monarchs themselves, paving the way for elements within the army to take politics into their own hands.
This process in Spain has been compared to the experience of France during the same period: fromBonaparte's own military-backedcoup of 1799, to the participation of liberal generalsLafayette,Gérard andMouton in the 1830overthrow of theBourbon Restoration.[5] Thepronunciamiento was also used under parliamentary regimes where the legislature had split into many micro-factions, rendering it impossible for the government to identify the public mood. Elements within the army might then intervene as a 'referendum' to influence parliament or government towards a desired direction.
In Spain, the principle of a segment of the military intervening in politics through a plebiscitary gesture had been generated by the national mass mobilisation of theWar of Independence againstBonapartist France. Subsequently, therestoration of the absolute monarchy prompted the liberalGeneral Riego to mount a military rising in 1820, demanding the restoration of theConstitution of 1812. For the next half-century a cycle of military interventions, bothpronunciamientos and classic coup d'états, would occur whenever Spain entered a deadlocked political crisis. Intervention could come from generals associated with theRadical-democratic left (Prim), theLiberal centre-left (Espartero), theconservative-liberal centre (O'Donnell) or theConservative-liberal right (Narváez,Martínez Campos). This particular fifty-year cycle came to a fifty-year close with theBourbon Restoration of 1874.[6]
Outside of the Hispanophone and Lusophone world, events that have been termed a "pronunciamiento" include:
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