Lieutenant General Carlos Alberto Presti was sworn in as the new Minister of Defense of the Nation before President Javier Milei, within the framework of a ceremony that marked the closing of the transition after the departure of his predecessor, Luis Petri. The designation formalized as of December 10, 2025 represents a milestone: Presti, chief of the General Staff of the Army until a few days ago, assumed leadership of a portfolio traditionally occupied by civilians since the return of democracy.
The arrival of Presti, an officer with a long career in the Armed Forces, was not without controversy. Political and human rights organizations had previously pointed out his appointment as a significant institutional change, given that he is the son of the soldier Roque Carlos Presti, implicated in accusations of crimes against humanity during the last civil-military dictatorship.
That family past was precisely the center of criticism from sectors of the Radical Civic Union, particularly the UCR of La Plata, which warned that the decision to put a military member in Defense represents an institutional setback and questioned the minister’s silence in the face of the accusations against his father and the absence of a clear position in defense of the democratic consensus that has developed in Argentina since 1983. For radical leaders, keeping the leadership of Defense in civilian hands is an essential principle of the Republic that should not be broken.
In parallel, the new minister was involved in an episode of misinformation that focused attention on social networks. A manipulated image was widely circulated showing Presti next to a green Ford Falcon, a car model loaded with symbolic associations with repression during the dictatorship. However, that photo is not real: it was generated by artificial intelligence, a Gemini watermark on the image itself and technical analysis of specialized tools confirmed that it was an artificial composition, and the visible patent corresponded to another vehicle other than the Falcon indicated.
Although denied, the viralization of the photo fueled public discussion and highlighted how the circulation of manipulated content can influence the political perception of public figures in an already polarized climate. The combination of formal political criticism and these digital intersections illustrate the tone that Presti’s arrival in the Cabinet has acquired: a key step for the Government, but also a focus of debate among those who view with distrust the military presence in a civilian role and the narrative construction of authority and historical memory in contemporary Argentina.
