What Does facto government Mean
In order to know the meaning of the term de facto government that concerns us, it is necessary, first of all, to discover the etymological origin of the two main words that give it its shape:
-Government comes from Latin, exactly from the verb “governare”, which can be translated as "driving a boat". That word that, in turn, derives from the Greek “kybernaein”, which is synonymous with “piloting” or “driving”.
-Facto, for its part, also emanates from Latin. In this case, it comes from the noun “factum”, which is equivalent to “fact”.
The government is the body that assumes the executive power of a State , made up of the president, ministers, secretaries, undersecretaries and other officials. The term can also refer to the time that the mandate of an authority extends. The de facto adjectival phrase , on the other hand, refers to what is specified or carried out in fact (without adjusting to a previous rule).
A de facto government , therefore, is one that exercises power in practice, but is not recognized or endorsed by a legal norm . A government that arises after a coup, therefore, is a de facto government.
In addition to all that is indicated, it is necessary that we proceed to indicate other characteristics of the so-called de facto governments:
-Not only can they be established after a coup but also due to a power vacuum, a de facto state or electoral fraud.
-Among the consequences that this type of government has is that there is no way to limit its power and that can lead to the establishment of a dictatorship.
-They are usually imposed by force and, as a general rule, are not recognized by the other institutions and organizations that exist within that country.
-Among the examples of de facto government we can highlight the one established by Augusto Pinochet in Chile in 1974 after forcibly overthrowing Salvador Allende or the one established by Hugo Banzer in Bolivia in 1971 after establishing a military coup with which he overthrew the government of Juan José Torres González.
Argentina , for example, had a de facto government between 1976 and 1983 . In 1973 , the Argentine people voted in democratic elections for Juan Domingo Perón as president and María Estela Martínez de Perón as vice president. The following year, Perón died and his wife became president, as indicated in the country's National Constitution .
However, on March 24, 1976 , the Armed Forces staged a coup and overthrew Martínez de Perón , known at the popular level as Isabelita . In this way, the military came to control the executive power and assumed a de facto government, whose operation was outside the law. It was not until 1983 that democratic elections were held again and thus the de facto government, which was headed by different members of the Armed Forces , came to an end.
As can be seen from this historical experience, de facto governments have an illegitimate beginning, since they are constituted in violation of the norms . From this origin, their actions lack legality and legitimacy .