ARGENTINA: President Clearly Delineates Military’s Role

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Jun 12 2006 (IPS) - The Argentine government clarified Monday that the sole function of the military is to defend the country against outside aggression, and that the armed forces have no role to play in domestic security.

President Néstor Kirchner issued a decree that codifies the country’s defence law, which gave rise to years of debate after its passage in 1988, and to a wide range of interpretations as to the role of the armed forces in democracy.

Defence Minister Nilda Garré explained that the codification of the law “determines with absolute precision” that the primary responsibility of the military is to defend the country against attack from another state.

“Questions of internal security and the so-called ‘new threats’, among which could be mentioned terrorism and drug trafficking, do not form part of their responsibilities,” said the minister. “The armed forces are not professionally trained for such challenges.”

In addition, the new regulations bring the army, the navy and the air force under the unified command of a joint chief of staff.

The decree also consolidates civilian control over the military. “Political-democratic control over military affairs and defence is essential to peace and to subregional integration based on solid, durable foundations,” said Garré.

The decree defines regional defence as a political question that must be assumed by civilian governments in the subregion. An amplified defence system should “foment and consolidate interdependence, interoperability and mutual trust among countries in the region, as well as the political conditions to ensure peace,” it states.

“The decree codifying the law on national defence is a task that has been pending for nearly two decades, and from that perspective, it is a good thing that it has been signed,” said Rosendo Fraga, director of the Centre for Studies on the New Majority, a local think tank.

The political scientist told IPS that although he had not yet read the entire text of the decree, “the initiativeàwhich grants greater authority to the joint chief of staff, up to now held by the commanders of each force, is reasonable.”

The Malvinas/Falkland Islands war, declared by Argentina’s de facto regime on Britain in 1982, showed the cost of having no unified military doctrine or command or joint training, said Fraga.

“The world’s richest countries are moving forward in that direction in terms of military organisation, and countries like the United States have been pioneers in that kind of doctrine, which Argentina is now assuming,” he added.

He also believed it was correct to leave the armed forces out of actions against threats like “drug trafficking, terrorism and organised crime.”

However, he said the air force should not be deprived of its authority to control the national air space and impede clandestine flights by drug traffickers, for example.

While Fraga said the reform was necessary, he added that “it should not be presented as an initiative that reduces the power of the military, as some official statements have implied.”

The decree, which other observers have stressed is key to strengthening civilian control over the military, was announced at a moment of tension between the centre-left Kirchner administration and small factions in the army.

On May 24, a group of active and retired military officers took part in a demonstration to pay homage to those they considered “victims of guerrilla subversion”.

The president sanctioned a few serving officers and called on several retired officers to explain their actions, which he said condoned the state terrorism waged during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship, when 30,000 leftists and other activists fell victim to forced disappearance, according to human rights groups.

Kirchner also told the armed forces that “I am not afraid of you.”

Over the weekend, the Catholic Church leadership called for “reconciliation” based on “truth, justice and forgiveness” among the government, the military and the families of the dictatorship’s victims.

In March, the Centre for Legal and Social Studies, a local human rights organisation, backed an active duty officer who refused to take part in illegal spying on political and social activists, from a navy base in the southern province of Chubut. The military had been keeping files, including photos, on the activists.

The defence minister said Monday that the civilian authorities who governed the country since the defence law was passed in 1988, under the government of Raúl Alfonsín (1983-1989), “were not interested in assuming their responsibility in these matters,” which is why it took so long to codify the law and delineate the role of the military.

Former defence minister Horacio Jaunarena, who served in that position under three different presidents since the restoration of democracy in 1983, admitted in 2002 that he had avoided codifying the law because he did not agree with the limitations it placed on the military’s role.

Another former defence minister, economist Ricardo López Murphy, also said the threats to which the military should respond included international terrorism, extreme poverty, drug and weapons trafficking, and religious fundamentalism.

By contrast, the Kirchner administration has consistently defended the spirit of the 1988 law. In September 2004, then defence minister José Pampuro called together his South American counterparts to hash out a common position to take to the fourth hemispheric meeting of defence ministers that year.

In the previous hemispheric meeting of defence ministers, Pampuro had pointed out that the United States and Canada were pressing the armed forces in Latin America to get involved in policing and law enforcement, domestic security, and the fight against terrorism and drug trafficking, but that South America held a different view, opposed to this kind of involvement.

“In our view, the role of the military is to defend the national territory,” Pampuro underscored at the time.