2024-03-14 03:01:00
In the midst of the escalation of violence in Rosario, Javier Milei took the opportunity to make an announcement: he said that the project to involve the Armed Forces in internal security tasks was now ready. However, hours pass and the proposal is not made public while the internal conflicts within La Libertad Avanza (LLA) flourish. Sooner or later, this issue will end up sneaking into the deteriorating relationship between Milei and his vice president, Victoria Villarruel. On the military issue, Villarruel had already warned that involving the Armed Forces – of which she claims to be the standard bearer – in the fight once morest drug trafficking was going to have legal consequences for those in uniform.
On Tuesday, Milei said that that same day they had discussed the possibility of reforming the Internal Security Law to give the Armed Forces more possibilities for intervention. According to the President’s version, the Minister of Defense, Luis Petri, had gone with a proposal to the Cabinet meeting, but no definitions had been made because the Minister of Security, Patricia Bullrich, was still in Rosario.
In Defense they say that they are working on the reform of article 27 of the Internal Security Law, which regulates the logistical support that the Armed Forces can give to the security forces. “We are working on the final details,” they repeat when asked.
According to current legislation, the Armed Forces can provide logistical support, can respond to attacks on military units or can operate when a state of siege is declared – something that is not in Milei’s plans.
The idea of involving the military in internal security issues is a long-standing proposal of Bullrich. She not only managed to get Petri to Defense but also placed people she trusted in key positions in the Ministry of Defense. One of them is retired colonel Marcelo Rozas Garay, who was a member of Bullrich’s teams when he was competing for the presidency. Rozas Garay is currently Undersecretary of Defense Planning. During the campaign, Rozas Garay had already announced a reform: “The concept that (the Armed Forces) will only act once morest external aggression will be abandoned.”
At one point it was circulated that the government might sign a decree to leave behind the doctrine promoted by Nilda Garré – through decree 727 of 2006, which regulated the Defense law – that the Armed Forces might only act in the face of external aggression from other States. . However, the military says that this is not enough. For this reason, the Government affirms that it will move forward with a bill, which it does not know if it has the votes to approve and which dismantles the consensus built over the last four decades.
In Defense they predict that the announcement will be made this week and that it will possibly be made by the Petri-Bullrich duo. It is also true that, beyond the internal situation within the forces themselves, in the Libertador building they are closely watching the fight between the Casa Rosada and the Senate. The new chapter of the not-so-cold war between Milei and Villarruel has a reason for being: the treatment in the Upper House of DNU 70/2023 with which the libertarian deregulated the economy and favored large economic groups.
After Milei’s announcement to reform the Internal Security Law, tweets circulated in which the current vice president argued with Bullrich regarding the proposal to send the military to “fight” drug trafficking. The controversy was in February of last year, but Villarruel always raised the same thing in public debates.
The vice president’s position is that basically the Armed Forces are not empowered to fight once morest civilians and that this will end up, sooner or later, forcing the military to respond to Justice. Villarruel also adds that they will not be military courts but civil justice. Today’s soldiers have a mirror in which to look at themselves: that of those in the ’70s, who more than 40 years following their crimes are still being tried.
Villarruel comes from militancy for “complete memory”, which seeks to justify what the forces did during the years of state terrorism. From that sector, they have already made it known that they do not like the proposal that the military get involved in internal security issues. On social networks, among others, Cecilia Pando and her husband, Pedro Rafael Mercado, spoke out.
The demand is explicit: they tell the Milei government that, if it wants to remove the military from the barracks, it must first remove from the prisons those who are still imprisoned for crimes once morest humanity. In addition, they demand a vindication of what the uniformed men did during the ’70s. During the campaign, Pando and company had been enthusiastic regarding Bullrich’s promise to give a “way out” to the “unjustly” imprisoned soldiers. Curiously, one of those who had circulated the letter was Rozas Garay, the same one who anticipated a shifting of the boundaries between security and defense.
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