The current political debate on lowering the age of criminal responsibility (arbitrarily oscillating between 13, 14, and 15 years) constitutes, from a strategic intelligence perspective, a tactical distraction maneuver or, in the worst case, a severe cognitive dissonance on the part of the ruling class. Analyzing juvenile delinquency as an isolated phenomenon, susceptible to correction by modifying a figure in the Penal Code, deliberately ignores the structural implosion of the State as a guarantor of order. The policy of the last four decades has handed over the monopoly on force and has renounced territorial sovereignty in vast areas of the country. If it is not assumed that the security, intelligence, and defense paradigm must be completely overhauled—including the re-professionalization of the forces, the recovery of criminal intelligence doctrine, and the reconstruction of the socio-economic fabric—any legislative reform will be dead letter. We are facing a final dilemma: a total refoundation of the state authority system or the chronic administration of a low-intensity anarchy. There is no room for more simulations. Subordination to civilian power was confused with operational disablement. Impact: 17 critical years were lost (1983-2000) while the world evolved towards asymmetric threats (narcotics, global terrorism) as Argentina dismantled its shields. The Breaking Point (2001-2002): The 2001 institutional crisis was not only economic; it was the rupture of the authority contract. Accumulated social resentment acts as fuel for systemic violence. The debate on whether a minor is criminally liable at 13 or 15 is, in this context, an exercise in cynicism. The objective reality indicates that the democratic system, in its administration of security and justice, has failed. Corruption is not an anomaly; it is a logical consequence of planned impoverishment. It is technically unfeasible to propose a successful security strategy ignoring the macro-social variables of 2023: 57% Poverty (27 million inhabitants). 16% Indigence (7.5 million inhabitants). These figures are not just economic indicators; they are risk indicators for national security. We are not facing a temporary incompetence but the result of four decades of self-inflicted defenselessness. The Institutional Disarmament (1980s and 1990s): After the recovery of democracy, politics adopted a doctrine of 'preventive castration' over the organisms of Defense, Security, and Intelligence. Monetary devaluation brought with it an axiological devaluation: the law, like the currency, ceased to be a repository of value. The Consolidation of Deterioration (2003-2023): The arrival to power of an administration with a 21% legitimacy of origin inaugurated an era of power construction based on polarization and subsidy, but not on the reconstruction of the State. Balance: Forty lost years. They represent a critical mass of citizens excluded from the formal social contract, creating a 'parallel State' where state law has no penetration or legitimacy. Due to ideological fear or historical revanchism, it was decided to inhibit, defund, and atrophy these capabilities. Sociologically, this implies that two complete generations were born and formed (or deformed) under the logic of immediate survival, without a notion of the long term or upward social mobility. The deepest and most difficult-to-revert damage is not the obsolete equipment, but the degradation of human capital. By destroying the professional career and pulverizing salaries, the Armed Forces (FFAA), the Security Forces (FFSS), and the Intelligence Organizations (ICIA) ceased to be destinations of vocation and excellence to become last-resort job pools. The phenomenon of adverse selection: The State recruits its defenders from the same pool of precariousness that feeds organized crime. Vulnerability: An intelligence agent or police officer who cannot guarantee their own economic subsistence or access to housing is an easy target for co-option by narco-capital. The anomalous succession of five presidents in one week and the sovereign default marked the end of predictability. The 'age' variable is irrelevant when the 'State' variable has lost its capacity for deterrence, anticipation, and territorial control. To understand the current impotence, it is imperative to audit the historical process of dismantling. It is a cosmetic debate on a building whose foundations have given way.
