Argentine President Javier Milei has appointed the new leadership of the armed forces. The right-wing extremists gave the Air Force leadership of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the body that exercises supreme command of the military. He also introduced changes in the leadership of the army, navy and air force. The most drastic changes were made within the army, where Milei appointed Alberto Presti as head of that arm and automatically retired 22 generals. For analysts, the Milei government is sending “a clear message of strengthening” the military, which now also holds relevant positions in the Defense Ministry.
The appointments published this Monday in the Official Journal indicate that Brigadier Xavier Julián Isaac will be the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Rear Admiral Carlos María Allievi will be from the Air Force; Brigadier General Fernando Luis Mengo of the Navy and Brigadier General Alberto Presti of the Army. With this latest appointment, 22 senior generals will automatically retire – 23 if the resignation of former Chief of Staff Juan Martín Paleo is added. According to estimates by the newspaper Clarín, that is two thirds of the management board. This is the most drastic change in the army since the government of Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007), when the Peronist president forced 19 generals into retirement.
In this way, the commanders who had ties to the previous Peronist government of Alberto Fernández were excluded from the army's leadership structure. Fabián Calle, a political scientist specializing in defense issues, warns that the decision “has no ideological or political significance, as he believes it did in 2003. They are considered both left and right,” says Calle, acknowledging that that Alberto Presti was chosen as head of the army because he was a “young” soldier with a “good image” within the armed forces. The political scientist believes that the decision is a response to a “strong renewal of the army” related to Milei’s defense and security agenda. “It is an important weapon in the government’s border control and anti-drug trafficking strategy,” explains Calle.
Alignment with the United States
In addition, analysts are waiting to see how the appointment of Xavier Julián Isaac as chief of the Air Force's Joint Chiefs of Staff will play out after a decade of the Army's leadership of that command. “I expect that there will be a more linear view of subordination to the United States,” says Luciano Anzelini, doctor of social sciences and professor at the University of Torcuato Di Tella. A hypothesis consistent with the intentions of Milei, who assured since the election campaign that his government would ally itself with the United States, Israel and “nations that respect freedom.” “We have to see how the armed forces are restored from a strategic point of view,” says Anzeli, who was an official in the Ministry of Defense between 2019 and 2022 under the direction of Alberto Fernández.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff were consolidated as the highest military leadership body following the 1982 Falklands War between Argentina and the United Kingdom. At the time, it was assumed that the failure of the war was due to the lack of joint action by the army, navy and air force, and the body began to gain importance in advising the defense minister, who is now the former Luis Petri, the conservative's vice-presidential candidate Alliance Together for Change. Since the return to democracy in 1983, the Air Force has held the Joint Chiefs of Staff leadership for a total of nearly 15 years in three periods, between 1985 and 1989, 1992 and between 2003 and 2013. The army has been the arm that has held control of the body the longest, with a total of around 21 years since the end of the last dictatorship, and the navy has only held this position of power for almost four years.
Expectations
Members of the armed forces voted en masse for Milei in the November 2023 election, when the far-right leader of La Libertad Avanza received 56% against Peronist Sergio Massa. The new government will have to respond to some of the historic demands of the army, navy and air force, which for years have demanded that their salaries match those of the security forces and demanded a larger budget. During the administration of Alberto Fernández (2018-2023), the National Defense Fund was created and a process of salary equalization with the security forces was initiated, which is still ongoing. The Bundeswehr hopes that these measures will continue.
During the election campaign, Milei's vice president, Victoria Villarruel, was a leader on defense and security issues. The daughter, niece and granddaughter of soldiers, she promised to increase the armed forces' budget, while Milei expected cuts in areas such as science, health and education. In addition, Villarruel denied state terrorism during the last dictatorship, a speech that did not have the expected impact in the barracks that are now dominated by new generations of soldiers. However, after the triumph of La Libertad Avanza, Villarruel was left out. The “Security” and “Defense” departments went to Patricia Bullrich and Luis Petri, respectively, whose joint candidacy was excluded from the race for Casa Rosada in the first round of voting; Both joined Milei after this defeat.
Political scientist Fabián Calle points out that the salary and budget improvements that the Ministry of Defense can promote are, however, conditional on the improvements approved by the Ministry of Economy, which, according to the government, must control inflation, which rises by 1% every day. “The military needs a stable economy, like any normal citizen,” says Calle. “There is also a lot to do on a symbolic level,” adds the political scientist. For the expert, the government is giving “a clear message of strengthening the armed forces”. This Monday's appointments complement others in the Defense Ministry, where retired soldiers occupy key positions, starting with Vice Minister Claudio Ernesto Pasqualini. “Since the return to democracy, they have never been so present in the Ministry of Defense,” says the political scientist.
The institution's funding was cut after the return to democracy and it ceased to be a relevant player in Argentine politics with the end of the last military dictatorship (1976-1983), which led to more than 30,000 disappearances, according to the organizations human rights . The armed forces had controlled Argentine politics for more than 50 years. In 1930, with the first coup, they began a long series of attempts to suppress first the first mass party in Latin America, the Radical Civic Union (UCR), and then, from 1955, Peronism. By the time they handed over power in 1983, they had forcibly removed five democratic governments from the Casa Rosada, not counting the leadership changes in the palace. They have been trying to improve their image for years.