Decision to Give Soldiers Domestic Policing Role Draws Fire in Argentina.
| Autor | Gaudin, Andres |
After winning the Argentine presidency in 2015 by fewer than 700,000 votes, businessman Mauricio Macri set about dismantling the existing social-economic system (NotiSur, Jan. 29, 2016). Undoing efforts by the three previous administrations to distribute wealth more equally, he instead reintroduced the kind of neoliberal policies that dominated the region in the 1990s (NotiSur, March 25, 2016, and June 17, 2016).
Macri also turned his back on the successful policies that had made the country an international leader in human rights (NotiSur, July 29, 2016). And now, in his third year in power, the president is upending the country's security balance by bending the rules that bar the armed forces from participating in domestic affairs.
This move came just as Argentina signed a series of agreements last month--in Washington, DC, and Miami--with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and advisers with the US Southern Command.
Among those opposing the new security approach is former defense minister Agustin Rossi (2013-2015), who accuses the Macri administration of "putting the country's institutional integrity at risk." But the officials responsible for the aforementioned agreements--Defense Minister Oscar Aguad and Security Minister Patricia Bullrich--say the policy shift is needed to improve law enforcement.
"The idea is to create a rapid-deployment force with members of the three branches of the military (Army, Navy, and Air Force) to offer logistical support in the fight against terrorism and drug trafficking," Aguad said.
Opposition members pointed out that the Argentine military isn't trained to take on terrorists or drug traffickers. Aguad responded by saying that technically speaking, the armed forces "won't be involved in domestic security affairs, because that's prohibited by law." He was referring to the Ley de Seguridad Interior (Domestic Security Law), which limits the military to act domestically only in extreme cases, and when an official state of emergency has been declared.
"This force will be based in the far north and northeast of the country (near the borders with Bolivia, Brazil, and Paraguay). The Army has 40,000 soldiers who are operationally prepared and can provide a lot of help with logistics," Aguad added.
But according to Rossi, the military already offers logistical support in certain situations by using its planes or trucks to...
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