An army general staged an attempted coup in Bolivia last week. And although he surrendered after only a few hours, his uprising served to underscore two trends across Latin America.

On the one hand, coups are a thing of the past. Once they were commonplace: In 1977, all but four Latin American countries lived under dictatorships. Today, the vast majority are democracies.

At the same time, events in Bolivia highlight an important shift in the military’s role across the region in recent years. After decades in the background, siloed off from civilian governments, many armies are stepping back into the spotlight at those governments’ invitation.

Soldiers have been given tasks normally carried out by the police or emergency services, such as fighting organized crime, responding to natural disasters, enforcing migration policies, or imposing curfews.

It’s not that the military is likely today to seize power anywhere in Latin America, says Raúl Madrid, an expert on the region’s democracy at the University of Texas at Austin. But he worries about “the creeping militarization of politics,” which he calls “a worrisome trend.”

Soldiers are more trusted than politicians among Latin Americans. Says Gustavo Flores-Macías, a professor of government at Cornell University, “every day that democracy prevails we should celebrate.”

Estela Fernández Arteaga was riding a minibus to a doctor’s appointment in La Paz last week when passengers, gaping at their cellphones, started calling out about a coup.

“I tried to stay calm,” says Ms. Fernández, a butcher who lived through military coups and attempted coups as a child. On Wednesday, as Gen. Juan José Zúñiga led troops and tanks to storm the presidential palace in the country’s mountainous administrative capital, many here ran to markets and ATMs to stock up on food and cash, fearful of what was to come.

Bolivians, like many Latin Americans of a certain age, are no strangers to coups. For most of the 20th century, political upheavals and dictatorships were common features in the region. By 1977, only four Latin American countries were not living under a dictatorship. Near the turn of the last century, though, most of the region had moved toward democracy, and coups began to feel like a thing of the past.

Last week’s attempted coup in Bolivia may have failed (some even believe it was faked in order to boost the president’s popularity), but it underscored an important shift in the military’s role across the region in recent years, experts say. After decades in the background, siloed off from civilian governments, many armies are stepping back into the spotlight at those governments’ invitation.

Soldiers have been given tasks normally carried out by the police or emergency services, such as fighting organized crime, responding to natural disasters, enforcing migration policies, or imposing curfews.

This has boosted the power and presence of the armed forces, and their reputations. Trust in the military is high in the region, higher than citizens’ trust in elections and in the three main branches of government, according to a 2023 report by Vanderbilt University’s LAPOP Lab.

“Politicians and presidents are bringing the military in and letting them get more involved in governing,” says Raúl Madrid, a professor of government at the University of Texas at Austin, who is working on a book about the origins of democracy in Latin America. “It’s a worrisome trend.”