Xavier Isaac, Marcelo Dalle Nogare, Alberto Presti, Carlos María Allievi and Fernando Mengo, new leaders of the Armed Forces
(DefesaNET) This weekend, Javier Milei’s government produced the biggest purge of army generals since Néstor Kirchner took office in 2003, or even 1983.
The decrees signed on Saturday include other appointments. Brigadier General Xavier Julián Isaac will be the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and will replace Paleo, who was appointed to the post during Alberto Fernández’s government. Second to Isaac is Admiral Marcelo Dalle Nogare. Brigadier General Fernando Luis Mengo will replace Isaac in the Air Force. And Rear Admiral Carlos María Allievi will be the new head of the Navy.
The names of who will command the Armed Forces have been tossed around for days. It has become a subject of speculation but also of great interest to the Milei government, which has different plans for the forces, including an audit of resources and functions whose format and purposes have yet to be clarified.
The Defense bet over who will command the different branches of the Armed Forces, which Clarín anticipated this week, has gained such intensity that it has led the Milei government to appoint retired brigadier Jorge Antelo to advise them on the appointments.
Antelo holds the position of Secretary of National Strategy in the Civil House headed by Nicolás Posse, with whom he established a relationship when he worked at Corporación América, owned by businessman Eduardo Eurnekian.
He retired in 2013 and during the government of Mauricio Macri was responsible for the National Planning and Strategy Directorate of the Ministry of Defense. Today he remains a member of Fundación Argentina Global.
The appointment of Brigadier General Alberto Presti as the new head of the Army automatically led to the retirement of 22 generals older than him.
If the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, Lieutenant General Juan Martín Paleo, who has applied for voluntary retirement, is added to the list, the number rises to 23.
The purge in the Navy amounts to seven admirals and three brigadiers in the Air Force are also retiring, so the big shock was in the Army.
In 2003, then president Néstor Kirchner appointed the head of the Río Gallegos Infantry Regiment, Roberto Bendini, as head of the Army and forced the retirement of 19 generals older than him. As well as appointing “modern” leaders, Kirchner forced the retirement of former admirals and brigadiers, causing a decapitation in leadership unprecedented in twenty years of democracy.
According to what emerged in these hours, Antelo and a small group of advisors were holding what they themselves defined as “conclaves” to analyze the trajectory of the candidates for military leadership and, first and foremost, the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (EMCO).
As we published, the first offer to lead the EMCO went to Isaac.
The brother of renowned Falklands War aviator Gerardo Isaac, the head of the Air Force has the argument in his favor of having been the protagonist in the negotiations with the Pentagon for Argentina to acquire several dozen F16 fighter jets. The operation has not yet materialized, but is now almost complete. The Minister of Defense, Luis Petri, decided with Milei to opt for this option instead of the Chinese FJ 17 Thunder and the Indian Tejas.
Isaac was also aeronautical attaché in Washington, which is in line with Libertad Avanza’s foreign policy, which places the alliance with the US and Israel as a priority.
The problem with the appointment was that it generated criticism from the Navy, which says that the leadership of the Joint Chiefs of Staff should be a rotating position between the three forces. They point out that in the last 20 years the Air Force has held it eleven times and the Army nine. In fact, during those four years it was in the hands of the ground force, led by Lieutenant General Paleo.
The Navy never had it in those years, and until Friday Isaac’s appointment was a fait accompli, although not yet signed. But the tough fight in the Navy, where its men have not skimped on negatively moving Isaac’s portfolio, could lead the appointment to a new round of negotiations that will affect the head of the Air Force.
Initially, to compensate for the internal military situation, it was decided that a rear admiral, Marcelo Dalle Nogare, head of Intelligence for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, would be the second head of the organization.
Rear Admiral Carlos María Allievi, currently Commander of the Maritime Fleet, was chosen to head the Navy by the “conclave”.
Instead, on Sunday night, the Defense Minister took part in the New Year’s Eve dinner with the guards of the Colegio Militar de la Nación, in Campo de Mayo, in an unprecedented gesture of rapprochement with the military.
As part of the adjustment of state spending established by the mega DNU and President Milei’s omnibus law, Petri has to secure funds to pay for the salary leveling begun under Alberto Fernández.
Allievi is seventh in seniority in the Force. He served in the US at the same time as Isaac.
As head of the Air Force, the first proposal went to Brigadier General Fernando Mengo, Head of Enlistment and Training. Mengo was Isaac’s secretary-general – the post that handles relations with politics – and before that he was the aeronautical attaché in London.
His appointment could generate a moderate number of retirements, including that of Brigadier Néstor Guajardo, Secretary General of the Force. There is, in fact, no intention on the part of the Executive to produce too many retirements.
As far as the Army is concerned, the appointment of Presti, who has been director of the Nation’s Military College since 2020 and previously deputy director in the previous administration, was surprising. Presti currently serves as commander of the IV Airborne Brigade in Córdoba.
In previous days, the proposal that the force be commanded by Brigadier General Roberto Agüero, from the Engineering branch, was evaluated. Commander of Division 2, his immediate previous assignments had been Director and Deputy Director of the Military College. He was stationed in Spain. He is seventh in seniority. The other possibility was for Brigadier General Jorge Berredo.
*** Translated by DEFCONPress FYI Team ***
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