The unit is intended to work in coordination with provincial police forces and, says the government, will enjoy `total autonomy' to deploy anywhere in the country if the judge in charge of a kidnap case should deem it necessary. This could run into legal problems. At present, federal police and security forces can only be deployed outside the federal capital to deal with cases that are clearly within federal jurisdiction (border matters, interprovincial traffic) or when a provincial government requests their assistance. Unlike the US, there is no legal provision for treating kidnappings as a specifically federal offence; they would only fall within federal jurisdiction if the victim were taken across provincial boundaries.
The increase in kidnappings provoked a mass street protest in Buenos Aires at the end of October. In the Greater Buenos Aires area, which includes the federal capital and a ring of municipalities in the province of Buenos Aires, there have been 207 reported kidnap cases in the first half of this year: 95% of the national total and 25% more than in the same period of last year.
ARGENTINA | Tighter noose on bent police. Continuing the crackdown on corruption within Argentina's police forces [SSR-03-03], on 12 November the chamber of deputies unanimously approved, without debate, a bill stiffening the penalties for crimes committed by members of the security, police and prison services. The bill had been approved by the senate on 6 August, but had been gathering dust in the lower chamber until the public demand spurred the legislators into action.
President Kirchner has publicly accused members of the Buenos Aires provincial police of involvement in kidnapping and other criminal activities. In response, death threats were issued against his family. The President reacted proclaiming, `I will not remain silent. I am saying this to the uniformed brothers of the Buenos Aires police [and] all the police forces in Argentina: it is time to end this business of seeing involved in crimes the men to whom we give a uniform and a pistol to defend the public.'
CHILE | Spying on Argentina. A bungled break-in by Chilean military intelligence agents to the Argentina consulate in the southern city of Punta Arenas has raised questions about, first, how high up the operation was authorised, and second, what the purpose was. One explanation that has gained considerable currency in Chilean military circles is that the purpose of the break-in was to obtain evidence that the Argentine vice-consul was involved in spying, running a local network of information to collect strategic information, particularly about the secret berths of Chile's missile-equipped launches.
More conspiratorial offerings: an attempt by disaffected military to embarrass defence minister Michelle Bachelet, or to provoke an incident between Argentina and Chile. The one that is most likely to earn official acceptance is that it was a local rogue operation. The officers most directly involved (a major and a lieutenant-colonel) are facing court-martial; their regional commander, a general, has resigned.
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