Stories that caught our eye: November 21 to 28

A MILITARY DEFENCE CHIEF

For the first time since 1983 the defence portfolio will pass from civilian into military hands, it emerged last weekend when President Javier Milei announced the replacements of Ministers Patrica Bullrich (Security) and Luis Petri (Defence) – respectively elected to the upper and lower houses of Congress in last month’s midterms. The appointment of Army Chief-of-Staff Lieutenant-General Carlos Alberto Presti as Defence Minister caused considerably more surprise than the widely expected replacement of Bullrich by her second-in-command, Security Secretary Alejandra Monteoliva. The Presidential Office described the latter as “a fundamental part of the Bullrich Doctrine establishing as priorities the frontal combat against drug-trafficking and criminal organisations and the maintenance of the rule of law and order on the streets of the Argentine Republic.” As for Presti, the Office’s comment was that “for the first time since the return of democracy, a person with an irreproachable military career reaching the top rank will be at the head of the Defence Ministry, ending the demonisation of officers, non-commissioned officers and soldiers.” But the militarisation of the Defence Ministry ran into criticism beyond Kirchnerism or the left. In one of her last ministerial initiatives, Bullrich last Tuesday announced and launched the new National Immigration Agency recently moved to her po