PORT SECURITY IN THE REPUBLIC OF ARGENTINA
Since the implementation of the ISPS Code, the Prefectura Naval Argentina has fulfilled the roles of Administration and Designated Authority, in order to comply with the obligations undertaken by our country, as a State Party to the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, SOLAS; and, since then, ensuring maritime and port security has become one of the strategic objectives of the Institution.
To this end, it had not only to develop the necessary national technical standards for the proper implementation of this international instrument in our country, but also had to introduce changes in its organization, such as the incorporation of the ISPS Operational Center, within the Directorate of Operations, or the Department of Maritime Security and Ports, within the Directorate of Judicial Police, Maritime Security and Ports.
Currently, a total of 106 Port Facilities are certified in our country, which are distributed in the Paraguay-Parana waterway, Río de la Plata and maritime coast, among the most important ports, the Complex integrated by the Ports of San Lorenzo - General San Martín and Timbúes (Province of Santa Fe), the Campana-Zárate area, Buenos Aires (also including the Port of Dock Sud), Quequén and Bahía Blanca.
As from 2013, and as a result of the continuous analysis carried out by the Prefecture in matters of maritime and port security, new maritime security requirements were established, to be complied with by all those port facilities and other elements of the Argentine Port System, which were not covered by the ISPS Code, Thus, a process was established for them to obtain their National Security Document, that is to say, to have a Security Procedures Manual and a person in charge of its implementation, similar to the Security Plan and ISPS that port facilities have, thus allowing the incorporation of more than 160 elements to the port security system. The objective of this was to establish that all the elements that make up the port infrastructure of our country, implement appropriate security measures to mitigate the risks of occurrence of events that affect the security of the same or the ships that interact with them.
In order to carry out all these actions, the Prefectura Naval Argentina trains its personnel with different courses and/or refresher courses, and currently has a staff of more than 100 ship and port facility security auditors, made up of men and women from the Institution. But it is also worth mentioning that, in the administered sector, there are more and more women working as Port Facility Security Officers, thus demonstrating the existing integration in the Argentine port sector, both in the State and in the public/private sector in charge of the operation of the different port facilities.
Finally, it is worth mentioning the active participation of the Prefecture in different training and/or updating events related to maritime security, both at national and international level, which allows, on the one hand, to keep the personnel who perform functions related to this matter updated and, on the other hand, to achieve an adequate support to the sector, in order to comply with the standards set at international level, pursuing the objective that ships coming from other States arrive at safe port facilities.