“I know Petri for his cosplays and for the little trains of joy with President Milei. And for the emptying of IOSFA, and the lowest salaries of all the forces,” he posted Victoria Villarruel, referring to Luis Petri. The vice president shot at the Mendoza legislator for his management in the Ministry of Defense, at the beginning of the libertarian government, recalling the disseminated images of the former official dressed as an aeronautical pilot promoting the purchase of F-16 planes from Denmark.
Petri’s response was immediate, answering in five words: “I know you as a coup leader.” For almost two years at the head of the Ministry of Defense of the Argentine Nation, the LLA deputy accumulated a growing number of public questions and from internal actors of the Armed Forces themselves and sectors linked to security and defense. His management, framed in the administration of the president Javier Mileiwas officially presented as an attempt to “value” the forces and modernize military equipment.
The purchase of the 24 supersonic aircraft F-16 used to Denmark headed the media and political agenda. Petri traveled to Copenhagen in April 2024 to sign the acquisition of the fighters, which the government described as the most relevant military acquisition in decades, for around $300 million, with staggered payments over five years and support from the United States for the logistics and training operation.
The opposition criticized the use of Defense resources in a purchase considered costly for a country with budgetary restrictions, in a context in which sectors of the forces themselves pointed out deficiencies in basic equipment and unresolved operational needs. There were also reports about the modernization and operational process of the F-16, which still require additional investments, adequate infrastructure, logistical support and specialized training, with execution deadlines that extend until 2029.
Furthermore, critics such as former military chiefs described the operation as more of a “marketing” strategy than a coherent defense policy, emphasizing that the structural situation of the Armed Forces – with personnel leaving the ranks, maintenance deficit and lack of equipment for other areas – cannot be corrected solely with the purchase of aircraft. In parallel, the Government expanded the military secret on contracts and works related to this acquisition, a measure that generated suspicions about the transparency of the expense and the details of the operation.
The salary front constituted another point of strong tension. Although Petri promised to progressively equate the salaries of the Armed Forces with those of the federal security forces, in practice this gap persisted and led to internal unrest. The document from the Chief of Staff revealed that thousands of troops requested voluntary dismissal, in many cases attributed to salaries that remained “below the poverty line” and the perception of lack of institutional recognition.
The crisis of IOSFAthe social work that serves the military, gendarmes, prefectural officers and their families, was another center of controversy. Under the direction of the organization during Petri’s administration, the debt skyrocketed from tens of billions to figures that far exceed 200 billion pesos, while health coverage and the network of providers deteriorated. Militants, associates and union leaders denounced insufficient benefits, delays and lack of access to essential treatments, generating protests from active and retired officers.
After leaving the Ministry of Defense, the national representative for Mendoza La Libertad Avanza has been maintaining an active presence in parliamentary debates and in the internal fights of the coalition, even with verbal exchanges directed at other former leaders of the ruling party, such as the case of Villarruel. The fixation against the vice president was largely born from the moment she assumed the Defense portfolio, a ministry that the lawyer aspired to control from minute zero of the libertarian government.
The second in line to the presidential succession, for her part, consolidated her own space with direct dialogue with retired military personnel and associations linked to the field of defense. The confrontation did not reach a formal rupture, but it exposed a leadership struggle over who best represents the military agenda within the government and showed that defense policy became a terrain of internal dispute, beyond the official line of the Executive.
Image gallery
