Which Armed Forces is President Javier Milei speaking to?
For five years, the top military leadership has spent its entire career in democracy and the forces have recently had a better public image than other institutions and powers of the State. They are thought of as a “solution” to different problems that in principle appear unrelated to their fundamental mission of defense: from
social containment
(that the “colimba” or a “social service” returns); assistance
to the population
, as happened with the "General Belgrano" mega operation in the pandemic; or in these weeks, the project of involving them in
internal security
for the fight against drug trafficking, an idea quite resisted in the military ranks.
“Let us inaugurate a new era of reconciliation with the Armed Forces that transcends this government,”
said Milei in his speech in Plaza San Martín on this new anniversary of April 2, 1982. The idea of reconciliation supposes the existence of a conflict . Does this conflict between society and the Armed Forces exist today?
Milei returned to this topic from the past. Kirchnerism was often accused of abusing the past, the "rearview mirror", although that intensity was limited above all to the "epic" of the first K government when the military was chosen as the "enemy" and Néstor Kirchner accumulated power.
“Reconciliation” refers to the years immediately after the end of the dictatorship, and especially to the 90s. It was the idea-force of those who wanted to cast a
cloak of oblivion
over the aberrant crimes of the dictatorship, in the face of those who pressed for judicial review. It was after the historic Trial of the Military Juntas (1985) and five years later Carlos Menem pardoned the Montonero leaders and the convicted military leaders: the policy of “national reconciliation”, which he had already announced in his own speech. of assumption.
This message from Milei comes after days ago he released a video on March 24 with a supposedly “complete” memory about the violence of the 70s that led to the military coup of 1976. A counternarrative of Kirchnerism, centered on the violence of armed organizations, but avoiding condemning state terrorism.
Milei promised this Tuesday “recognition and support” to the Armed Forces. As a sign of this vocation, she invited the military and also the Malvinas veterans to join the so-called “May Pact” - her own political and economic reform program that she imagines that all sectors should subscribe to.
No salary equalization
In practice, the Armed Forces
did not have good news with Milei's chainsaw
. The main military concerns for years have had to do with her profession (and not with the past lead years):
salaries, and budget.
According to a retired senior military leader: “It was a good message from the President, but only that. They are expressions of desire that later have no correlation in facts. The lack of budget and the suspension of payment of the equalization plan demonstrate this. They are pro-armed forces until the time comes to invest in them, in this they also seek to place themselves at the antipodes of Kirchnerism,” he evaluated with skepticism.
Contrary to what happened historically, the military earns less than federal and, in cases, provincial police forces. In the last year of the previous government, a
long-delayed equalization plan
began :
in addition to the increases like the rest of the state,
5 extra quotas
would be given to the Armed Forces, to achieve the desired equalization. In 2023, 3 tranches were paid (14%, 14% and 12%). The Milei management inherited this plan,
it had 2 installments left (January and April 2024, both 10%), but it suspended it
. In March the military received a 16% increase in line with the rest of the public administration.