The general Mario Stevenazzicommander of the Army, addressed this Thursday in his speech for the National Army Day the proposals for reducing the number of troops in the Armed Forces and the recent pension reform approved in Parliament.
During his speech, Stevenazzi highlighted the various activities carried out by the Armysuch as border control, external surveillance of prisons and participation in Peace Missions at the international level.
The senior military official highlighted the high weekly average of more than 60 hours of work carried out by soldiers and mentioned that many of them they spend days without returning to their homes or being with their families. Despite this, he expressed his concern that public proposals to reduce the Army, some of which he considered unserious and even humorous, seem to minimize the effort of members and their families.
Criticism of the proposal to reduce military forces
Recently, the deputy César Vega of the Intransigent Radical Ecologist Party (PERI) proposed to carry out successive races among the military, where the last to arrive would be discharged as a measure to reduce the number of soldiers.
In relation to this issue, the Army commander expressed his wish that, in the event that this proposal is seriously analyzed, it be carried out in an exclusively professional and detached from any ideologyas part of a comprehensive study of the entire State and for the benefit of the country.
In addition, he mentioned that the concept of not needing an Army if we never go to war does not seem real.since it is enough to look around us or a little further away to understand the importance of having a prepared Army.
Pension reform and its implications
Regarding the retirement reform, Stevenazzi referred to the changes in the retirement age and the assets to be collected once the military leaves the activity. He stressed that this issue has generated uncertainty since 2015 and that, although a new law was passed in 2018 and a restructuring process was completeddifferent actors have presented aspects in a professional way or with little real knowledge, based on urban legends or particular interests.
The commander stressed that, in his opinion, the retirement ages are too high to comply with the professional military activities of each hierarchy. However, he acknowledged that the new document allows Junior Staff members to increase the percentage of the withdrawal amount and achieve better replacement rates as established in current law.
