Since Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet stepped down in March 1990 and an elected president took office, the military has taken a backseat to democratic reforms in Latin America. 

However, the military is once again taking on larger societal roles, thereby posing subtle threats to democratic institutions. 

In some countries, the armed forces are fighting crime, as politicians and the general public demand a crackdown against gang and drug violence, according to NBC News. 

For example, in Venezuela, the public sees the military as having the authority to take the reins when the president has lost the faith and trust of the people. 

Military budgets are also expanding in Mexico, Brazil, Chile and Argentina, as they increased more than half from 2006 to 2012. While the total military expenditure for Latin America and the Caribbean is only $69 billion, which is one-tenth of the Pentagon's defense budget, it is still a sizable amount for the area. 

Russia, who is facing sanctions from the E.U. and U.S. in arms trading, is benefiting from the increased military spending, as it is the primer weapons dealer in Latin America. 

Countries along the "cocaine route" from the Andes to the United States are especially upping their military capacities, with soldiers frequently patrolling city streets. 

However, the military has been implicated in human rights abuses in countries such as Peru and Mexico. 

Even Argentina, which suffered heavy casualties during its dictatorship and the Falklands War with Britain, is using the military to guard the country's borders with Bolivia and Paraguay in an effort to stop drug traffickers. 

Alfredo Forti, the head of the Center for Strategic Defense Studies (CEED), a think tank in Buenos Aires, told NBC News: "The military is trained for armed conflict, not policing. Why not strengthen the police instead?"

"These are steps that are very hard to reverse," he said. "It is a risky tendency. Sooner or later it will end up politicizing the armed forces and weakening the police."

Mexico is also using the military to fight drug cartels, which is often supported by the public, who consider police forces inept and corrupt. 

Public approval of the military in Latin America is 39 percent, according to NBC News. 

However, experts contend that the military is still subject to corruption, and often lack transparency in their budgets. 

It also remains likely that the military could ouster civilian presidents, which experts believe occurred in Paraguay in 2012 and Honduras in 2009.

Venezuela is also at risk of a potential military coup, as there has been intense anti-government protesting since the death of President Hugo Chavez. Chavez appointed more than 1,600 Venezuelan military officers to senior government posts since 1999. 

However, the biggest threat to current President Nicolás Maduro is not the military; the biggest threat is most likely the political movement he inherited from Chavez. 

"The military is very much a supporting actor. They would at least have to acquiesce," Harold Trinkunas, a Venezuela expert at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., told NBC News. 

Although the military dictatorships in the 1980s -- which were often backed by the United States -- are long over, victims from the era have still not achieved justice. Many of the military officers who committed many human rights abuses have not been prosecuted. 

With the renewed power of the military, such human rights abuses have a chance of returning, despite the democratic nature of Latin American nations.