Intelligence shake-up: AFI chief Silvestre Sívori resigns after Posse's departure

President Javier Milei has accepted the resignation of lawyer Silvestre Sívori as top spy at the helm of Argentina’s Agencia Federal de Inteligencia (AFI).

Sívori’s exit from AFI is related to his proximity to the outgoing Cabinet chief Nicolás Posse, who resigned late Monday night and recommended the spy chief’s appointment.

"The trustee of the Agencia Federal de Inteligencia Silvestre Sívori has presented his resignation following the departure of Cabinet chief Nicolás Posse, who had brought him into the technical teams of La Libertad Avanza in 2023," read a decree published in the Official Gazette.

Sívori has headed AFI since December 12, 2023. The spy agency was placed under trusteeship by President Milei via a decree, which ordered him to “make it more professional and boost its cooperation with international agencies while upgrading its intelligence tasks in accordance with the strategic interests of the new government."

Since then Sívori has selected technical expertise to take the politics out of the senior posts within the Agency, said the government.

In addition, "he has boosted the Agency’s relationship with its counterparts in the region and the world in order to advance in the battle against terrorism,” continued the text.

"One milestone was the advance of a common agenda with the CIA, which included training in the United States and the visit to Argentina of CIA chief William J. Burns," added the communiqué.

The institution had already been placed under the control of a previous trustee by Milei’s predecessor Alberto Fernández. But Milei complained that there had been "a notorious institutional decay in detriment to the objectives proposed” by the National Intelligence Law.

The former AFI chief is a lawyer who had worked previously with former Transport minister Guillermo Dietrich at City Hall as his Legal and Technical secretary.

Sívori also worked alongside Dietrich at the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as legally representing the Dirección General Técnica Administrativa y Legal de la Subsecretaría de Transporte de la Ciudad.

At national level he was the director-general of Legal Affairs for the Transport Ministry under Dietrich between 2016 and 2019, also working with the City attorney-general in 2021.

– TIMES/NA