In the coming weeks, the Government will present the draft of a new Juvenile Criminal Law to Congress to lower the age of imputability to 13 years and, thus, “avoid impunity for crimes committed by minors.” This was reported by the ministers Mariano Cúneo Libarona (Justice) and Patricia Bullrich (Security) at a press conference, at the headquarters of the Ministry of Security.
According to national officials, the initiative “will combat the persistent growth of juvenile crime.” “It is public knowledge that organized crime takes advantage of children and adolescents to commit crimes without restrictions, thus evading criminal responsibility,” they added. This regime will cover adolescents between 13 and 18 years of age charged with an act classified as a crime in the Penal Code.
Minister Bullrich said that this is an “important day for the country for so many families who lost their children at the hands of a minor. That minor returned home after a crime as if nothing had happened. The fact that they have not been convicted is the worst condemnation for the country.”
He also stressed that “we have come to fulfill our duty to a society that does not want impunity. From now on, crime and, worse, death, have consequences.” He explained that now “adolescents from 13 to 18 years old will be covered. There will be sanctions for the adult who acts as an instigator, who ordered a minor to commit a crime.”
One of the issues that the ministers addressed was all the projects that have so far been sent to the National Congress regarding the lowering of the age of imputability. According to the Minister of Security “There were hundreds of projects in Congress from different blocks and they never wanted to be discussed. We ask the deputies and senators elected in their towns that for those cases they had there, to approve this law. It was requested by the Argentines, by the Supreme Court and now by the President. The decision of President Javier Milei and the joint teams of these ministries of Security and Justice is to comply with a society that asks for answers.”
In the project in which Justice and Security worked together and to which he agreed Infobae, one of the main axis is the creation of “special establishments or separate sections of penitentiary establishments, under the direction of qualified personnel” to house detainees. The parents of minors involved in crimes will be informed of “the accusation and other procedural acts” and the protection of the victims is aimed at. “The judge and the Public Prosecutor’s Office will ensure at all times the effective protection of the rights of the victims,” he establishes.
Both ministries admit that approval of the project will take a few months. Although it will be sent in the next few days, it must go through the entire legislative process that includes discussion in different committees and the presentation of experts on the subject until there is an opinion so that it can only be discussed in both Chambers of Parliament. “We know that it will take a while but that it responds to a demand from society,” Manfroni, one of the officials who worked the most to draft the project, told this medium.
At this time, other projects such as the anti-mafia law and the one that increases penalties for those accused of acts of resistance to authority are being debated in Congress in a preliminary phase. The lowering of the age of imputability adds to a package that is promoted by the Casa Rosada on the issue of security, since it is among one of the priorities that will be targeted after the sanction of the Bases Law.
Also present were the Deputy Minister of Justice, Sebastián Amerio, the Head of the Security Cabinet, Carlos Manfroni, and the National Director of Regulations and Judicial Liaison, Fernando Soto.
News in development
