The bill, which had already been approved by the Chamber of Deputies, received 44 votes in favor, 27 against and one abstention in the Senate
The Argentine Senate approved, this Friday (27), a law that reduces the age of criminal responsibility from 16 to 14, an initiative promoted by President Javier Milei that the government celebrated as “an act of justice towards society”. “Whoever has the capacity to understand the gravity of their acts assumes, without exception, the responsibility of responding to the law. Adult crime, adult penalty”, published the Argentine Presidency in X minutes after the vote.
The bill, which had already been approved by the Chamber of Deputies, received 44 votes in favor, 27 against and one abstention in the Senate. It modifies the juvenile penal system that dates back to 1980. Argentina maintained the highest age of criminal responsibility in South America, where, in most countries, it is 14 years old. In Brazil, the age of criminal responsibility begins at 12 years old, while the age of criminal liability, which is the age of criminal responsibility itself, is 18.
According to international standards, the Minimum age of criminal responsibility is that at which a minor cannot be held criminally responsible for his or her acts and therefore cannot go to trial.
“We came to put an end to a terribly dangerous doctrine, the doctrine that the criminal is a victim of the system,” said senator and former Minister of Security Patricia Bullrich, the project’s main defender. Opposition parliamentarians denounced that the government accelerated the process in the commissions, despite the majority of experts called having expressed their opposition, and warned that the deadlines for adapting the detention facilities and the planned budget are insufficient.
“We want a State that offers a comprehensive response, which includes education, resocialization,” said Peronist senator Martín Soria, from the opposition, who voted against the new law. “From there, the only response is criminal,” he added. The parliamentary debate takes place at a time of great social sensitivity due to crimes committed by teenagers that had great repercussions in the media.
The approval of the new law came on a day when the Senate is preparing to ratify the labor reform, also promoted by Milei.
*AFP
