President Javier Milei's government has increased the national budget for 2024, expanding it by another 100 billion pesos in order to "strengthen" the newly reorganised intelligence services.
The funds will be dedicated to the new SIDE state intelligence secretariat, which has been reinstated following the shutdown of the AFI federal intelligence agency.
The cash, according to a government statement, comes from "reserved funds."
The new allocation for SIDE was confirmed via Decree 656/2024, published on the Official Gazette. It was signed by President Milei, Economy minister Luis Caputo and Deregulation & State Transformation Minister Federico Sturzenegger, among others.
Last week, the government announced the dissolution of the AFI, saying it would be replaced by the resurrected SIDE, an organisation with a complicated history.
The new change explained that “it is necessary to allocate the budgetary items which help initially settle the actions to reorganise the National Intelligence System and the proper operation of the aforementioned decentralised bodies comprising it”.
“The main aim of those funds will be the National Intelligence System to ensure the security, defence and integrity of the Argentine Republic”, confirmed the document decreeing the allocation of the budget to the Argentine Intelligence System, the National Security Agency, the Cybersecurity Agency and the Internal Affairs Division.
They pointed out that it was necessary to “establish their reserved nature” due to “the nature of the destination of the allocated funds” and that “their publicity would affect the normal development of tasks of the bodies comprising the system”.
“The exceptional nature of this situation makes it impossible to follow the ordinary formalities set forth in the Constitution to approve laws”, they concluded.
After the results obtained in the receivership of the agency which took place last December 12, 2023, the government ordered the dissolution of the AFI, and in its stead, the body governing the National Intelligence System became the SIDE, left in charge of Sergio Neiffert.
In a release from the President’s Office, the AFI’s closing was grounded on “the altering of the role of the intelligence agency for decades being full” and that “the body was used for such spurious activities as internal espionage, the trafficking of influences and political and ideological persecution".
According to the government, “without proper supervision, resulting from receiverships which lasted for years, the proliferation of these conducts amounted to a debt to the democratic and republican system which we have just begun settling today”.
They went on to explain that the new intelligence system will have four agencies commanded by the SIDE, left in charge of Sergio Neiffert, who a month ago was appointed comptroller of the AFI after Silvestre Sívori’s exit, who left together with former Cabinet chief Nicolás Posse.
“Thus, the State Intelligence Secretariat is created, to be dependent directly on the President, which will have operational control of four agencies created in order to transform and modernise the intelligence system, by promoting excellence and professionalism in the development of its tasks”, the President's Office underlined.
--TIMES/PERFIL
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