In a context of growing social unrest in Argentina, marked by massive protests by retirees, workers, and students, the government of Javier Milei is strengthening its strategic alliance with the United States in matters of defense and internal security . According to the media outlet Info Defensa , Argentine troops participated in joint exercises with the Georgia National Guard in June at Fort Moore (formerly Fort Benning), an installation historically linked to the controversial School of the Americas, where Latin American military personnel were trained decades ago and later joined repressive regimes .
The program implemented by Mauricio Macri's government in 2016 promotes "interoperability" and "mutual training" in combat tactics, military engineering, and response to chemical or nuclear threats. However, the choice of location is not trivial: Fort Benning housed the School of the Americas during the Cold War, an institution that trained officers of the Southern Cone dictatorships in "internal security" and counterinsurgency doctrines, under the US paradigm of combating the "internal enemy." Among its students were Argentine repressors who later applied these methods in clandestine centers during the Process (1976-1983).
Coincidence… or continuity
The current administration insists on identifying an "internal enemy" in those who protest against its policies. Security Minister Patricia Bullrich has been promoting protocols that criminalize social protest, with a repressive approach that includes tear gas and arbitrary arrests, according to reports from organizations such as CELS. This approach, coupled with official rhetoric that stigmatizes opponents—from unionists to artists, including economists and journalists—reminiscent of the language prior to the 1970s, when the National Security Doctrine was used to justify the persecution, and in many cases the death, of dissidents.
U.S. Major General Konata Crumbly and Argentine Brigadier Gustavo Javier Valverde, after signing the agreement renewed by Mauricio Macri.
Although the Argentine government and its US partners emphasize that current cooperation is limited to technical aspects, experts warn of symbolic and political risks. "The scenario is different: today there is democracy and legal frameworks. But when a government militarizes its response to social conflict and resumes ties with centers associated with a repressive past, it is inevitable to ask what message it sends to the Armed Forces," notes a report by the Center for Military Personnel for Democracy (CeMiDa).
Memory and the present
Following the restoration of democracy in 1983, Argentina made progress in subordinating the military to civilian power and in prosecuting crimes against humanity. However, the reactivation of agreements at facilities like Fort Moore—now under a different name, but with similar infrastructure—undoubtedly reopens wounds. For human rights organizations, the key lies in transparency: "Let there not be a repeat of the opacity of the 1970s, when the US trained soldiers who later used that knowledge to torture," emphasizes CELS.
The challenge, analysts agree, is to ensure that this cooperation does not legitimize bellicose conceptions of security. While the Argentine Army insists on its constitutional role of external defense, the images of tear gas being used against elderly people in Plaza de Mayo fuel fears that, for many, never truly went away.
