This Thursday, December 19, Argentine President Javier Milei signed a decree together with the Ministries of Defense and Security that authorizes the sending of military custody to “strategic objectives” in the face of threats such as international terrorism or organized crime. This decision gives the government the power to define which are those facilities or assets that the state should protect in a special way in the face of risks that could compromise sovereignty.
The “strategic objectives” refer to nuclear plants, power plants, dams, radars, and national security facilities. Although this aspect was already included in the previous legislation, the Libertarian government includes “parastatal or criminal” actors. According to them, because there are demonstrations of the actions of other actors with the same capacity to harm, such as international terrorism and criminal gangs in different countries.
The strategic objectives are “any good, installation or set of fixed installations and material entities of vital importance for the NATIONAL STATE that, in case of being partially damaged or destroyed, would cause serious damage to the life and welfare of the inhabitants of the country, to its economy, to the environment or to the very Security of the Nation, limiting, postponing or preventing its development,” the decree details.
In the second article, it states that “the qualification as ‘Objective of Strategic Value’ shall be the exclusive competence of the National Executive Power. The Chief of Cabinet of Ministers or the Ministers of Defense and Security may propose to the PEN the qualification of ‘strategic objective’ to other assets, facilities or set of fixed facilities in accordance with the criteria set forth in article 1 herein.”
On the other hand, it states that, “The Ministry of Security, according to the ‘Objectives of Strategic Value’ that it protects by means of the use of the Federal Police and Security Forces, in compliance with what is determined by the National Executive Power, may request the support of the Armed Forces or of the Provincial Police Forces and of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, in which case it shall coordinate its actions with the Ministry of Defense or with the Governments of the Provinces and of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, as the case may be.”
The Ministry of Defense will act in the same sense when it must provide protection, in peacetime, to “Objectives of Strategic Value.”
“It cannot be overlooked that a strategic view of National Security involves the detection of the threats faced by the State, among which international terrorism is one of the main problems of the Agenda of the 21st century. That such threats are related to the destabilization of the State and democratic institutions, through the affectation of critical infrastructure, a situation that is aggravated by new technologies applied to the art of non-conventional combat,” states the decree.
This article was translated from an article originally published in Spanish on ARGMedios.
