According to this newspaper in the southern province of Santa Cruz, the Ministry of Defense, headed by Luis Petri, has decided to apply a two percent withholding of each military member’s salary, with the aim of financing the deficit of the Armed Forces Social Security Institute (IOSFA), which is experiencing an economic and management crisis.

The reduction includes, it specifies, base salary, bonuses, supplements, and any other salary item. Currently, military personnel already contribute 6% of their salaries, and they report that coverage for medications and highly complex treatments has been drastically reduced.

The measure is already causing strong opposition within the military, who also receive 25% less salary than security forces under the ministry headed by Patricia Bullrich due to the suspension of the salary hierarchy initiated by the previous administration, the Santa Cruz-based outlet reported.

The situation at the IOSFA already generated controversy months ago, when the Ministry of Defense requested a 40 billion peso (30 million 75 thousand dollars) loan from the Financial Aid Institute to support its operations, Nuevo Día reported.

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