The ministries of Argentina, which form the cabinet, currently consist of eight ministries under a ministerial chief of staff.[1] The ministers are appointed by and serve at the pleasure of the president. The current organization derives from the constitutional revision of 1994.
Prior to independence, the administration of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata was organized under the Royal Ordinance of Administrators (es|Real Ordenanza de Intendentes|links=no) issued on 28 January 1782,[2] under which there were eight Spanish; Castilian: intendencias, each with a governor reporting to the viceroy. The governor had the police, finance, and the military under his direct control, and his lieutenant administered the courts. At first the revolutionaries retained the same system, only gradually dispersing the executive authority over a larger body of men. The first true cabinet posts in Argentina emerged in the early to mid-19th century first under the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata and later under the Argentine Confederation and the State of Buenos Aires. For example, the Department of Governance and War (Spanish; Castilian: Departamento de Gobierno y Guerra) was created on 28 May 1810 by the First Junta with Mariano Moreno as secretary, and although the First Junta sent out diplomates as early as 1810, it was not until 27 February 1813 that the Department of Foreign Business (Spanish; Castilian: Departamento de Negocios Extranjeros) was created under the supervision of the Secretary of State.
The 1983 Law on Ministries passed by then-president Raúl Alfonsín set the precedent for secretariats of state with ministerial rank.[3] These secretaries respond directly to the presidency. As of the latest version of the Law on Ministries, these are the existing secretariats of the presidency counting with ministerial rank in the Argentine government.[4]
| Portfolio | Incumbent | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Portrait | Name | Since | Party | Coalition | ||||
| General Secretariat | Libertarian Party | Freedom Advances | ||||||
| Legal and Technical Secretariat | Republican Proposal | Together for Change | ||||||
| Communications and Press Secretariat | [5] | |||||||