The Ministry of Defense (Spanish: Ministerio de Defensa; abbreviated MINDEF) of Argentina is a ministry of the national executive power that oversees and advises on matters of national defense, including oversight of the Argentine Armed Forces.
Overview
The Ministry of Defense is one of the oldest ministries in the Argentine government, having existed continuously since the formation of the first Argentine executive in 1854, during the presidency of Justo José de Urquiza, when it was known as the Ministry of War. Its headquarters are located in the Libertador Building in Buenos Aires. As of the 2024 budget, the ministry's annual budget was approximately 1.27 trillion Argentine pesos (about USD 1.5 billion).
History
Traditionally, the Minister of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff (Spanish: Estado Mayor Conjunto), which traces its origins to 1948, had a relatively minor role in armed forces activities, with key decisions being relegated to the respective service chiefs of staff.
A major change came into effect on 12 June 2006 when President Néstor Kirchner put into effect the Defense Law, which had been passed in 1988 as a means to modernize the doctrine of the armed forces and define their role, although successive governments had failed to implement it. The law states that the armed forces will only be used against foreign aggression and reduces the powers of the heads of the armed services, centralizing operational and acquisition decisions under the authority of the Minister of Defense through the Armed Forces Joint General Staff, emphasizing jointness.
The ministry was formally renamed the Ministry of Defense in 1958, establishing a civilian figure between the presidency and the Armed Forces.
Structure
The Ministry of Defense includes the following component bodies:
- Estado Mayor Conjunto de las Fuerzas Armadas (EMC): Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Armed Forces
- Secretaría de Estrategia y Asuntos Militares: Strategy and Military Affairs Secretariat
- Secretaría de Planeamiento: Planning Secretariat
- Secretaría de Asuntos Internacionales de la Defensa: Defense Foreign Affairs Secretariat
- Dirección Nacional de Inteligencia Estratégica Militar: National Directorate for Strategic Military Intelligence
- Dirección Nacional de Derechos Humanos y el Derecho Internacional Humanitario: National Directorate for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law
- CITEDEF (former CITEFA): Institute for scientific and technical research in defense
- Industrial Complex: including FadeA, Fabricaciones Militares, and Tandanor/Domecq Garcia
List of Ministers
The ministry has undergone several name changes throughout its history: Ministry of War and the Navy (1854–1898), Ministry of War (1898–1949), Ministry of Defense (1949–1955), Ministry of War (1955–1958), Ministry of National Defense (1958–1981), and Ministry of Defense (1981–present).
Notable ministers have included figures such as Julio Argentino Roca, Juan Domingo Perón, and Nilda Garré (the first woman to hold the post, serving from 2005 to 2010). The current minister, as of December 2025, is Lieutenant General Carlos Presti, appointed by President Javier Milei. Presti became the first defense minister to come from a military background since the end of military rule in Argentina in 1983. He succeeded Luis Petri, who served from December 2023 to December 2025.
See Also
- Argentine Armed Forces
- Argentine defense industry
- Defence diplomacy
