Short answer. Yes. Article 2024 gives the annuitant, when payments fall into arrears, a right to claim judicially the income already due and to require the debtor to give security for the future income. It does not, however, let you reclaim the capital or retake the property unless the contract says so.
What the law says
he shall have only a right judicially to claim the payment of the income in arrears and to require a security for the future income
Civil Code, Article 2024 — Non-Payment of the Annuity. Read the full provision →
What security for the future income means
When a life annuity falls into arrears, the annuitant faces a particular worry: the payments are meant to continue for as long as a named person lives, so a debtor who has already missed instalments may keep missing them for years. Suing for each unpaid amount as it comes due is slow and repetitive. Security for the future income answers that. It is a guarantee — a bond, a mortgage, a surety, whatever the court finds appropriate — set up so that the payments still to fall due are backed by something you can look to if the debtor defaults again. It converts a bare promise into a secured one.
The right, in the article's words
Article 2024 grants this expressly. Alongside the right to sue for arrears, the annuitant shall have only a right judicially to claim the payment of the income in arrears and to require a security for the future income. The word judicially matters: this is a court remedy, not something you impose unilaterally. You ask the court, on proof of the arrears, both to order payment of what is overdue and to require the debtor to constitute security for the instalments to come. The two go together — the past default is the very thing that justifies demanding protection for the future.
Why the law offers security, not rescission
The article deliberately channels a defaulting annuity into security rather than into unwinding the deal. The same sentence forbids demanding reimbursement of the capital or retaking the property alienated, unless the contract stipulates otherwise. The reasoning is that the transfer of capital or property was complete and the contract is aleatory — priced on the risk of the annuitant's lifespan — so the law protects the income stream instead of reversing the exchange. Security achieves that: you keep the benefit of the bargain and gain assurance the payments will be honoured, without disturbing property that has already changed hands.
How to invoke it in practice
In practice, requiring security is something you pursue in the same action in which you claim the arrears. What helps is a clear record of the missed payments — dates, amounts, demands made and ignored — because the arrears are what entitle you to ask for protection going forward. The form the security takes is for the court to fix on the facts. And before anything, read the annuity contract: if it already provides its own security, or grants stronger remedies such as rescission for non-payment, those stipulations govern. Where it is silent, the statutory right to arrears and security is what Article 2024 secures for you.