Argentina’s Defence Ministry will be led by a military officer for the first time since the return to democracy in 1983 and the fall of the military dictatorship, President Javier Milei has announced.
Milei said on Saturday that he would appoint Lieutenant General Carlos Presti as his new defence minister as part of a move to “end the demonisation of our officers, non-commissioned officers and soldiers."
Presti, chief of the general staff of the Argentine Army, will replace outgoing Defence Minister Luis Petri, who will take up a legislative post in early December representing Milei's La Libertad Avanza party in Congress.
“For the first time since the return of democracy, a person with an impeccable military career, who has reached the highest rank in his service, will head the ministry responsible for national defence and the Armed Forces,” Milei’s office said in a statement.
Presti’s appointment breaks with the practice – upheld without exception by governments across the political spectrum for 42 years – of naming civilians to the defence minister post.
Since December 1983, when Raúl Alfonsín assumed the Presidency, all defence ministers have been civilians.
Among the most prominent post-holders were Horacio Jaunarena, who held the post several times between the 1980s and early 2000s, and Nilda Garré, the first woman to serve as defence minister in 2005.
Veteran Peronist politician Agustín Rossi, who has twice held the post, criticised the decision as a “step backwards.”
“It is a significant setback in terms of what democracy has built over the last 40 years, which has been civilian political leadership of defence,” Rossi told the Noticias Argentinas news agency in an interview.
Rossi also said “the appointment of a military officer raises logical doubts,” arguing that the Armed Forces would now be “directly involved in political management” of their own forces.
The national deputy-elect also highlighted the challenges facing serving officers, citing what he called “starvation wages” for soldiers.
Dictatorship era
Argentina was ruled by a brutal military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983, which justified its actions by claiming to target violent guerrilla groups and left-wing “subversives.” All the while, it was carrying out a bloody campaign of state terrorism that led to the killing of thousands.
Human rights organisations estimate that around 30,000 people were killed or forcibly disappeared during this period.
Among them were pregnant women held in clandestine torture centres, whose babies – an estimated 400 in total – were often stolen and handed over to allies of the junta.
Thanks to the work of the courts and the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo NGO, around 140 of those children have since recovered their identity, with the search still ongoing.
Experts stress that the true death toll is unknown, given the military junta's attempts to cover up their crimes.
Argentina’s return to democracy ushered in a long process of memory, truth and justice, with hundreds of trials against former military officers resulting in more than 1,000 convictions for crimes against humanity.
Since taking office in December 2023, Milei’s government has cut funding for human rights bodies and challenged widely accepted accounts of the dictatorship’s crimes, steps that rights experts say has damaged attempts to seek justice.
Milei's government also released a video to mark the anniversary of the March 24, 1976 coup calling for “complete memory” of the conflict and declaring that the estimate of 30,000 disappeared had been manufactured by rights groups, drawing widespread criticism.
New minister
Carlos Presti, a career military officer with extensive institutional experience, is the son of Roque Presti, who commanded Argentina's Seventh Infantry Regiment in La Plata during the dictatorship.
Born on June 23, 1966, he trained at the National Military College, graduating in 1987 as a second lieutenant in the infantry. He has held several senior posts since, including commander of the IV Airborne Brigade, head of the 601 Air Assault Regiment and director of the National Military College.
Presti also served as chief of the Argentine peace battalion on deployment in Haiti and worked as defence attaché in several Central American embassies.
His arrival at the Defence Ministry comes amid government discussions about involving the Armed Forces in domestic operations against drug-trafficking.
He was appointed chief of the Army’s general staff by presidential decree in late 2023 by President Milei, part of a broader overhaul that forced the retirement of 22 senior officers.
Government sources told Perfil that the decision to appoint Presti was "100 percent Karina" – a reference to President Milei's sister, Karina Milei, his presidential chief-of-staff.
Presti will have to relinquish his military rank to assume the position.
Monteoliva to head security portfolio
Presti’s appointment is part of a wider Cabinet reshuffle by Milei. Several of the President's top officials won seats in Congress in the October legislative elections and will take office on December 10.
Milei also confirmed on Saturday the long-rumoured news that Alejandra Monteoliva will take over as national security minister, replacing her mentor and political chief Patricia Bullrich, who is moving to the Senate to lead the government's reform push in the upper house.
Monteoliva has almost three decades of experience in public administration and has specialised in security policy throughout her career, which has included spells at the United Nations Development Programme, CAF development bank and Inter-American Development Bank (IDB, BID in Spanish)
Under Milei, the National Security Ministry has been criticised for cracking down on protests through a controversial anti-riot protocol that has left many demonstrators – including elderly pensioners – and journalists injured.
Milei’s office said Monteoliva “has been a key player in the ‘Bullrich Doctrine,’ which prioritises the fight against narco-terrorism and criminal organisations, and the maintenance of law and order on the streets of the Argentine Republic.”
“Both appointments represent continuity of the course these ministries embarked upon on December 10, 2023,” the government said.
–TIMES/NA/PERFIL
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