We are experiencing institutional immunodeficiency in the face of a national government that acts as a serial violator of the national constitution. There is an urgent need to respond.

By Miguel Julio Rodríguez Villafañe

Malvinas, Antarctic, and South Atlantic Islands

Our Constitution, in its “transitional provisions” incorporated by the 1994 reform to reaffirm a goal of the beloved homeland, states: “The Argentine Nation reaffirms its legitimate and inalienable sovereignty over the Malvinas, South Georgia, and the South Sandwich Islands, as well as the corresponding maritime and insular areas since they are an integral part of the national territory. The recovery of these territories and the full exercise of sovereignty … constitute a permanent and inalienable objective of the Argentine people” (first clause).

On 11 April this year, Javier Milei traveled to Ushuaia, the capital of the province of Tierra del Fuego, Antarctica, and the South Atlantic Islands, to pay his respects to the head of the US Southern Command, General Laura Richardson. The latter received Milei as if he were in a place of his own under the tutelage of the Empire of the North. There, the president announced an agreement to build a joint naval base with the US. This was a real sign of symbolic cession and subordination of sovereignty, contrary to the constitutional objective mentioned above.

The management of the port in a fundamental enclave of our South, when, as the Spanish newspaper El País reported on 3 March 1984: “The final victory of the British army in the Malvinas war was largely due to secret aid from the US government, hidden both by Washington and London, according to the latest issue of the British weekly The Economist…”. The Economist claims that US aid to the United Kingdom exceeded 60 million dollars, not counting the supply of fuel and the direct delivery of weapons that were decisive in the battle”. (1)

In short, the Argentine government is allowing the entry of military personnel from the USA, an unconditional ally of the United Kingdom, which has occupied by military force the Malvinas, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, as well as a large part of the Argentine Sea, with projection towards the mainland and the Argentine Antarctic continent and the Magellanic Canal.

All this, with the aggravating factor that the national government has announced that it is applying to NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) to join this military alliance. In this way, President Milei intends to associate the country with a military and warmongering organization in which two of its main members have collaborated and continue to collaborate in the maximum usurpation of sovereignty in the south of the country.

Paraná River Administration

The General Administration of Ports (AGP) of the Argentine Republic and the Brigadier General of the United States Army Command, Daniel H. Hibner, signed the “Memorandum of Understanding” with the U.S. Corps of Engineers for the control of the Paraná water corridor in March 2024. This agreement, which is in force and being implemented, allows the entry of US troops to participate in the management and security of the misnamed “Hidrovía” (waterway).

The Paraná River Waterway is a natural river transport corridor of more than 3,400 km that runs through the Paraná and Paraguay rivers, allowing continuous navigation between the ports of Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay. This corridor is also part of an immense water system called the “Cuenca del Plata”, which covers a vast area of just over three million square kilometers, whose surface waters flow into the Río de la Plata.

All of this makes up the area in which an important economic activity and the highest population density are concentrated. Navigation is undoubtedly one of the most important uses of the region’s major rivers. Together with the Río de la Plata, they form one of the main corridors for the circulation of goods with access to the Atlantic Ocean for foreign trade and are of vital importance to the Argentine Republic and cannot and should not be controlled or monitored by foreign powers.

Serious constitutional violations

Both the construction and joint use of a naval base in Patagonia, as well as allowing the US military to intervene and/or control the Paraná River corridor, constitute an act of surrender of the power of the nation, in this case, the military (naval) power, which carries the sanctions established in articles 36 and 29 of our Constitution, as “infamous traitors of the homeland”.

Likewise, in both situations, the actions of the Executive Power assume powers that the National Constitution establishes as belonging to the Legislative Power in its Article 75 sections. 5, 10, 16, 18, 22, 24, 28, 30 and 76, which have the power to authorize and control the entry of foreign troops for certain specific purposes established in Law 25.880, which both agreements do not respect.

In the same sense, the agreements violate art. 99, in its parts: 2, 12, 14, in that both seriously violate the whole spirit of the above-mentioned articles and of Laws 23.554 on National Defense and 24.059 on Internal Security.

It should be noted, among other things, that Law 23.554 establishes that the purpose of national defense is to “permanently guarantee the sovereignty and independence of the Argentine nation, its territorial integrity and its capacity for self-determination…” (art. 2). And it adds that “national defense is a right and a duty for all Argentines” (Article 6).

It can be added that the Argentine Penal Code establishes severe penalties for those who “commit an act intended to subject the nation, in whole or in part, to foreign domination or to undermine its independence or integrity…” (Section 215, Subsection 1).

In short, the actions of the national executive power affect territorial integrity, the integrity of natural resources, national sovereignty and its defense, and the sovereignty of the people who delegate their power to their representatives in the National Congress. Both agreements are null and void.

Amparo

Faced with the grave failure to appoint an Ombudsman for 14 years, and with the duty of Argentines, the Interactive Foundation for Water Culture (FIPCA) and the Group for Sovereignty (GPS), represented by their presidents Julio César Urien and Gabriel Ignacio Pirich, respectively, filed an Amparo requesting that the courts declare the absolute and irrevocable nullity of the aforementioned agreements, based on the numerous legal grounds that have been developed.

The action was supported by the lawyers Eduardo S. Barcesat, Daniel Anibal Valmaggia and myself. The case is entitled: “Fipca y otro c/ PEN s/ Amparo” (Expte.: 8307/24) and will be heard by the Civil, Com. and Cont. Adm. Federal Court of La Plata N° 2.

The homeland is not for sale, it is defended.

(1) https://elpais.com/diario/1984/03/03/internacional/447116417_850215.html?event_log=oklogin

(*) Dr. Miguel Julio Rodríguez Villafañe is a constitutional lawyer from Córdoba and an opinion journalist.