Building the Professional Profile of the National Gendarmerie in Argentina

Argentina has in the present four federal security forces that depend organically on the Ministry of Security, created in 2010. The analysis of this paper will be centered in the professional profile of Gendarmería Nacional Argentina (GNA).

That corps was created in 1938, with the mission of consolidating the international borders and ensure the safety of the inhabitants of those regions, with a profile of security militarized corps, in the style of the French Gendarmerie or the Italian Carabinieri, but focused on border control.

Since the 90s of the last century it has been producing a transformation of the profile of the force, pointing to a more professional. So, a change was beginning to be built, for example, with the assignment of the Gendarmerie to United Nations peace keeping missions.

Moreover, since 2005, a comprehensive review of the formation and operation of the security forces was made, which culminated in the creation of the Security Ministry. Accordingly, it was also developed a policy in each of the security forces to create university institutes for the training of officers and/or for the rise of the same.

In the case of the Gendarmerie, also sought a change of profile that would increase functions - some already had been incorporated-, such as safety on federal jurisdiction routes, control and prevention of drug trafficking and security to certain disturbances which could become federal crime, such as breaking traffic in routes.

This paper seeks to describe and analyze the efforts of improving the quality of training of officers, noncommissioned officers and agents of the Gendarmerie, as well as the redefinition of the professional profile of it since the creation of the University of the National Gendarmerie Argentina (IUGNA).