Argentina’s opposition is seeking a congressional vote to reverse Milei’s repeal of limits on foreign ownership of rural land.
Argentina’s opposition is preparing a congressional challenge to President Javier Milei’s repeal of restrictions on foreign ownership of rural land after the Supreme Court overturned a ruling that had kept the limits in place.
RELATED: Argentina Scraps 15% Cap on Foreign Ownership of Rural Land
The court ruled Tuesday that the Center of Ex-Combatants of the Malvinas Islands of La Plata (CECIM), which had challenged the repeal, lacked legal standing to bring the case. It did not rule on whether Milei’s repeal was constitutional.
The decision effectively leaves in force Article 154 of Milei’s Decree of Necessity and Urgency 70/2023, which repealed Law 26.737, known as the Rural Land Law. The 2011 legislation capped foreign ownership of rural land at 15% and limited individual foreign ownership in Argentina’s agricultural core to 1,000 hectares.
Unión por la Patria, the main Peronist opposition bloc, said it would seek a special session of the Chamber of Deputies to reject the decree, with support from the Civic Coalition, Provincias Unidas and the Left Front.
¿Por qué la oposición denuncia que Argentina quedó «en venta» tras el fallo de la Corte Suprema? El Máximo Tribunal revocó la medida que frenaba la derogación de la Ley de Tierras.
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Text Reads: Why is the opposition denouncing that Argentina has been left «for sale» after the Supreme Court ruling? The Highest Court revoked the measure that halted the repeal of the Land Law.
A decree of necessity and urgency can only be overturned if both chambers of Congress reject it. The Senate voted against Milei’s decree on March 14, 2024, by 42 votes to 25, with four abstentions, but the lower house has never considered it. The opposition therefore needs 129 deputies present to hold the special session.
“We have one bullet, so we have to be very precise,” one of the lawmakers promoting the initiative told Tiempo Argentino.
The Peronist Senate caucus has also introduced a bill seeking to repeal the decree.
Land ownership restrictions
Law 26.737 was approved by the Senate in 2011 with 62 votes in favor and one against. It established a nationwide 15% ceiling on foreign ownership of rural land and limited individual foreign ownership in the agricultural core to 1,000 hectares.
Milei repealed the law in late 2023 through DNU 70/2023, which allows the executive branch to issue measures with the force of law without prior congressional approval.
The Federal Court of Appeals in La Plata later declared the relevant provision unconstitutional, leaving the Rural Land Law in force through judicial proceedings until the Supreme Court’s latest ruling.
Constitutional experts cited by Tiempo Argentino said the Supreme Court’s decision has the practical effect of upholding the decree, although the court did not directly rule on its constitutionality. Historian Matías Oberlín of the National Scientific and Technical Research Council’s Land Observatory said: “Today there is no law.”
CECIM condemned the ruling, saying its members could “die defending sovereignty but not go to court.” In a statement, the organization said the decision had “put the Argentine Republic up for sale” and argued that foreigners could now purchase municipalities, provinces, border areas, rivers, valleys, forests and ravines, as well as the Malvinas Islands.
The Justicialist Party likewise said that three Supreme Court judges had “put the national territory up for sale” and called for the decision to be reversed “in the streets, in Congress and at the ballot box.”
Government weighs alternatives
While the opposition seeks congressional action, the government is considering ways to preserve the repeal.
According to Página 12, the administration is weighing whether to restore provisions on land ownership to a bill on the inviolability of private property currently before the Chamber of Deputies. The provisions were removed by the Senate in August after failing to secure sufficient support and amid strong opposition in the streets.
Sources cited by the newspaper said projects and pending transactions are awaiting a legal framework that would allow foreigners to purchase land, in line with tax benefits proposed under the RIGI and “super RIGI” investment regimes. Neither regime has received final approval from Congress.
The Supreme Court ruling also comes amid a renewed debate over the Malvinas Islands.
The focus is currently on the Sea Lion oil field in the northern Malvinas basin, about 220 kilometers from the archipelago. The project is operated by Israel’s Navitas Petroleum, which holds a 65% stake, and Britain’s Rockhopper Exploration, which holds 35%. Extraction is planned for 2028.
On Sept. 16, federal judge Mariel Borruto in Río Grande ordered the project suspended as a precautionary measure following a request from the Argentine Association of Environmental Lawyers and CECIM La Plata.
The British government rejects Argentine jurisdiction over the archipelago, while its Foreign Office has issued corporate guidance maintaining that Argentina has no jurisdiction to impose sanctions there.
The Milei administration has responded by announcing a naval base in Tierra del Fuego, filing a criminal complaint against five companies linked to Navitas, sanctioning 15 other parties and sending Congress a bill that would increase penalties for companies exploiting resources in the Malvinas without authorization. Milei also suspended a planned October trip to the United Kingdom.
On Wednesday, a congressional committee meeting on the government’s sovereignty bill for the islands was suspended after a confrontation between Peronist lawmaker Juan Grabois and members of the governing coalition. Opposition lawmakers have also proposed impeachment proceedings against the three Supreme Court judges who signed the land ruling.
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