According to “The Military Balance 2021” of the International Institute of Strategic Studies of London (IISS), Brazil, Colombia and Chile led the investment in Defense in South America during the last year … if we look at their presidents they have an orientation … Let’s say they buy everything in the USA …
The Military Balance is a work of more than 500 pages that the IISS publishes annually, containing key data relevant to the security policy of more than 170 countries, such as the gross domestic product, the defense budget, the population structure, the military equipment, size of the Armed Forces and many analyzes of the regional arms industry, innovations, real capabilities, intentions and developments.
Regarding Latin America and Central America, the IISS warns that in general terms, defense spending in the region remains low: compared to the world, the continent represents 2.9% of spending. This is due to economic performance, social challenges and the absence of major external threats to security, having varied between $ 57 billion and $ 67 billion in real terms over the last decade.
Given the regional political and economic reality, most of the countries in the region spend a lower proportion on defense, placing the regional average during this period at around 1.1% of GDP, well below the world average of 2, 1%.
Brazil, as usual, sets the regional trend. Since 2010, the defense budget of Brazil has remained stable, around US $ 24,000 to 26,000 million in real terms, although last year it fell to 22,100 million dollars, representing between 1.3% and 1, 5% of GDP.
Next in the regional ranking, Colombia maintained growth in 2020, with a defense budget that increased by 3% in real terms, reaching US $ 9.4 billion, representing 3.56% of its GDP.
Meanwhile, always according to the study of the British institute, Chile has marked a constant expenditure that is around 4,000 million dollars since 2018, decreasing and that in 2020 represented 1.63% of its annual budget (interesting about Chile, which according to a 2019 survey only has a population of 18.95 million).
Argentina, for its part, marks a decrease in defense spending, according to the IISS, marking a total expenditure of 2,900 million dollars in 2020, compared to 3,200 million that were allocated in 2019 and 4,300 million in 2018. In terms of the Percentage represented by spending in GDP is estimated at 0.76% in the country’s spending.
Lastly, among the top five in South America is Peru, which last year allocated a total of US $ 2,000 million, that is, 1.09% in the Gross Domestic Product.
