MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Coast and Border guards conflict finds a culprit and comes to an end

Raul Garré, chief advisor and brother of the minister was sacked carrying the blame

The Argentine Coast and Border Guards conflict came to an end on Wednesday morning following an order for the officers to return to their posts and remain in barracks until new instructions.

The decision was announced following the sacking of Raul Garré Security Ministry advisors’ cabinet chief, and brother of Security Minister Nilda Garré, and who has been blamed for the misinterpretation of a decree which led to drastic cuts of up to 70% in the rank and file monthly pay checks.

Early Wednesday a few protesting Border Guards remained in front of the force’s main building in Buenos Aires who admitted to have lost a battle, “but this does not mean we have lost the war”.

The conflict which erupted from the miscalculation of salaries continued with a petition list demanding a higher starting wage, improved conditions and making effective contributions to pension funds. It is an extended practice in the Argentine bureaucracy to increase monthly pay checks with ‘non contribution” items which means the employer, in this case the government, does not pay into pension funds.

In the case of protesting Coast and Borders Guards the so called ‘non contribution’ items made up anywhere from 60% to 80%, of their income which meant meagre pensions at the moment of retiring.

Apparently most of these problems that surfaced have been addressed to great extent although the government said point blank there was no way to have a starting monthly salary of 7.000 Pesos.

By ordering the forces to barracks, officers hope to restore the command hierarchy and bring all activities back to normal. “These are orders that must be complied otherwise there could be very severe sanctions, which would damage the professional career of the guards and their retirement”, said command sources.

The protest started over a week ago with Decree 1307, which savagely cut salaries but were later recomposed by the government, plus some additional benefits from the list of petitions and the sacking of Garré as the culprit of the conflict, which helped all sides return to normal everyday business as usual.