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The Argentine Armed Forces are controlled by the Commander-in-Chief (the President) and a civilian Minister of Defense. In addition to the army, navy and air force, there are two forces controlled by the Interior Ministry: the Argentine National Gendarmerie, a gendarmerie used to guard borders and places of strategic importance; and the Naval Prefecture, a coast guard used to protect internal major rivers and maritime territory.
Structure
The military is under the direct authority of the Defense Ministry, and is comprised of five branches divided in two categories: Armed Forces (Fuerzas Armadas) and Security Forces (Fuerzas de Seguridad).
On June 12 2006, President Néstor Kirchner brought into force the Defense Law, which had been passed in 1988 as a means to modernize the doctrine of the armed forces and define their role, though successive governments had failed to put it into effect. The law states that the armed forces will only be used against foreign aggression, and reduces the powers of the heads of the armed services, centralizing whole operational and acquisitions decisions under the authority of the Armed Forces Joint General Staff.
History
The Argentine military were considerably more influential in former times. Throughout the 20th century, democratic governments were more often than not interrupted by military coups d'état (see History of Argentina). The last military dictatorship lasted from 1976 to 1983 and was termed Proceso de Reorganización Nacional ("National Reorganization Process") by its leaders, who justified their actions (illegal detentions, forced disappearances, torture and summary executions) as necessary for the suppression of terrorism (see Dirty War).
In 1965, the Argentine military conducted a large-scale land military maneuver on Antarctica. Nicknamed Operación 90, this was undertaken ten years before the Antarctic Treaty came into being and was conducted to cement Argentina's claims to a portion of those territories (still claimed as Argentine Antarctica).
Since declaring its independence in 1816, Argentina has had traditionally difficult relations with its neighbor Chile, which almost caused a war between the two countries in 1978, on the basis of disputed islands on the Atlantic-Pacific line. The conflict was resolved by mediation of Pope John Paul II and in the form of a Peace and Friendship Treaty (Tratado de Paz y Amistad) in 1984. After that, other border disputes with Chile were resolved by peaceful means. Under presidents Carlos Menem and Fernando de la Rúa, international relations improved, and Argentine officials now publicly deny seeing a potential threat from any neighboring country.
Since the return to democratic rule in 1983, the Argentine military have been reduced both in number and budget, but became more professional, especially after conscription was abolished. The British embargo due to the Falklands/Malvinas War has been officially eliminated since the 1990s, Argentina was granted a Major Non-NATO ally status by United States President Bill Clinton, and the Armed Forces began a close defense cooperation and friendship policy with neighbors Brazil and Chile.
Under president Néstor Kirchner, relations with the United States have become of a different nature:
- The U.S. military requested a guarantee of full immunity for their soldiers in case they commit a crime while in joint maneuvers in Argentine territory, and like 34 other countries *, Argentina has denied it.
- Argentina, like Brazil, has also distanced itself somewhat from the U.S. in matters such as the Iraq invasion, it has abstained twice on the UN vote to condemn Cuba on the issue of human rights violations, and President Kirchner in some cases, has stood in favor of the controversial Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez.
While Mercosur is only an economic entity so far, the strengthening of confidence among the member countries has been beneficial to the peace in the region, exercising a useful role in supporting democracy. The Mercosur served, for example, to discourage the Paraguayan military during an attempted coup in early 2000.
Argentina has not sent troops to wars abroad in recent times, but has remained involved in UN peacekeeping efforts in multiple locations like Cyprus, Croatia/Bosnia and Haiti.
Since 1999 and as of June 2006, Argentina is the only Latin American country to maintain troops in Kosovo during SFOR (and later EUFOR) operations where combat engineers of the Argentine Armed Forces are embedded in an Italian brigade.
Argentina maintains close defense cooperation and military-supply relationships with the United States and in a lower scale with Israel, Germany, France, Spain and Italy.
References
See also
External links
"Military of Argentina"