Argentine National Gendarmerie

Non-commissioned personnel of the Gendarmerie are all volunteers and receive their training in the force's own comprehensive system of training institutions. Officers graduate after a three-year course at the National Gendarmerie Academy. Both officers and non-commissioned personnel have access to the specialist training establishments of the Army.

Argentine Gendarmes in Oberá in Misiones

The Gendarmerie was created in 1938 by the National Congress, and replaced the regiments of the Army which previously fulfilled the Gendarmerie's missions. The Gendarmerie was particularly tasked with providing security in isolated and sparsely populated frontier regions which had only been settled relatively recently. In many senses the Gendarmerie may still be considered an adjunct of the Argentine Army.

The Gendarmerie's mission and functions are concerned with both domestic security and national defense.

According to the Argentine Constitution, the armed forces cannot intervene in internal civil conflicts, so the Gendarmerie is subordinate to the Interior Ministry. It is defined as a civilian "security force of a military nature". It maintains a functional relationship with the Ministry of Defense, as part of both the National Defense System and the Interior Security System. It therefore maintains capabilities arising from the demands required by joint military planning with the armed forces.

The Gendarmerie's main missions are:

• Providing security for Argentina's borders
• Providing security for places of national strategic importance (e.g. nuclear plants)

The Gendarmerie is also used for other security missions, which include:

• Policing missions:
  • Assisting provincial police services in maintaining public security in rural areas
  • Preventing smuggling
  • Fighting drug trafficking
  • Fighting terrorism
  • Fighting crimes "against life and freedom" (children and organs trade, slavery, etc.)
  • Dealing with economic crime
  • Dealing with environmental crime
  • Dealing with illegal immigration
• Military missions:
  • War-fighting missions (e.g. in the Falklands War)
  • Peacekeeping or humanitarian aid missions under the United Nations
  • Providing security for Argentine embassies and consulates in several foreign nations

Under the United Nations, the Gendarmerie has served in Guatemala, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Angola, Lebanon, Rwanda and Haiti.

• Laguna del Desierto incident
• Foreign relations of Argentina
• Argentine Naval Prefecture
• Argentine Federal Police

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gendarmeria Argentina.

• Official website (in Spanish)