Argentine agricultural and rural security legislative shifts

The Argentine Congress continues to debate legislative measures regarding the agricultural sector and rural security. In mid-August, the Chamber of Deputies' Transport Commission began discussing proposals to permit soybean cultivation on surfaces adjacent to national highways, aiming to recover approximately 50,000 hectares for agricultural use.

Legislative focus has increasingly centered on rural security. The National Congress is debating a bill to criminalize ‘rural vandalism’, a project supported by Confederaciones Rurales Argentinas (CRA), the Federación Agraria Argentina (FAA), and the Sociedad Rural Argentina (SRA). The proposal seeks to amend the Penal Code to include ‘rural intrusion’, punishable by one month to one year in prison, and ‘aggravated damage’ to crops, livestock, or infrastructure—such as irrigation systems and solar panels—which could carry sentences of two to eight years.

In the province of Chaco, legislative activity has targeted recidivism. The Chaco Legislature approved the ‘Ley de Reiterancia’, a reform to the Provincial Criminal Procedure Code. This law allows judges and prosecutors to use a person’s history of similar criminal activities as an objective criterion for ordering preventive detention, aiming to address the ‘revolving door’ phenomenon without requiring a final conviction. While Governor Leandro Zdero welcomed the reform as a necessary tool for public security, opposition members noted that the law provides tools but does not substitute for effective government management. Additionally, the Chaco government has proposed creating 100 new penitentiary agent positions to address staffing shortages.