Alejandra Monteoliva will take command of the Ministry of Security, while Lieutenant General Carlos Alberto Presti, who has an admirable career, will serve as Minister of Defense
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The national government confirmed this Saturday the replacements in the Security and Defense ministries, as part of a ministerial reorganization that will take effect on December 10. On that day, Patricia Bullrich and Luis Petri will take up their legislative seats—Bullrich in the Senate and Petri in the Chamber of Deputies—and will be succeeded by two key figures for the continuity of the direction set since December 2023.
Patricia Bullrich herself officially announced the appointment of Alejandra Monteoliva as the new Minister of Security through a message on social media. "Ale, my congratulations on the enormous challenge you're about to take on," stated the official, highlighting her successor's "career, professionalism, and dedication." She added: "In these years as National Secretary of Security, you were by my side with a work ethic and strength that made a huge difference. I saw you strive, grow, and build experience. What comes next, you'll face it with what defines you most: results, courage, and honesty."
The government reported that the ministerial change aims to deepen the policies promoted by Bullrich and Petri since December 10, 2023. In particular, it highlighted Monteoliva's role as a key piece of the so-called "Bullrich Doctrine," focused on the fight against narco-terrorism, organized crime, and the restoration of public order.
Alejandra Monteoliva y Patricia Bullrich.
Alejandra Monteoliva's profile
Monteoliva graduated in 1993 from the Faculty of Political Science and International Relations at the Catholic University of Córdoba. Two years later, she received a scholarship from the Netherlands government that took her to Colombia, where she completed a master's degree at the University of Los Andes, in the midst of the drug trafficking crisis of the 1990s.
Her stay lasted 19 years, during which she joined the restructuring and academic strengthening processes of the Colombian National Police, under the leadership of General Óscar Naranjo. According to the official herself, that experience "marked an essential milestone" in her humanistic understanding of the police role.
In addition to her work with the Colombian forces, Monteoliva served as director of academic programs, researcher, and professor at institutions in the coffee-producing country, the National Police, and various security entities in Latin America. In her international role, she collaborated with multilateral organizations of the United Nations, the IDB, and the CAF, with experience in El Salvador—where she worked for the past two years—, Honduras, Ecuador, Peru, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, and Panama.
In Argentina, she had a significant role in provincial public administration: she was director of the Córdoba Crime Observatory, director of Planning, and Minister of Security at a particularly critical time for the province. At the national level, she joined Bullrich's first administration (2015-2019) as director of the Criminal Information System and, later, as national director of Operations, coordinating work with the four federal forces between 2018 and January 2020.
El comunciado del Gobierno.
Presti: a historic appointment
The confirmation of Lieutenant General Carlos Alberto Presti as the new Minister of Defense marks a historic turning point: according to the official statement, it is "the first time since the return of democracy" that a career military officer with an impeccable record has assumed this position. For the government, this appointment represents an essential step to "put an end to the demonization of our officers, non-commissioned officers, and soldiers."
Presti, current Chief of the Army General Staff, embodies—according to Casa Rosada—the combination of technical training, institutional leadership, and professional reputation that the administration seeks to consolidate at the head of critical areas for national defense. The Office of the President emphasized that his arrival at the Ministry constitutes "a tradition that we hope the political leadership will continue from now on."
Both appointments, assured the Office of the President, "imply a continuity of the direction that these ministries undertook on December 10, 2023, and their imprint will remain for the rest of this administration."
The statement concludes with a strategic assertion that synthesizes the government's vision: "The powerful Argentina that we all dream of and that Argentines reaffirmed at the polls last October 26 requires firm, professional, and depoliticized Security and Armed Forces, under the leadership of experts in their respective fields."
