“Everything is going to rot” – Contrary to the public perception that the scandal surrounding the investigation of ex-president Alberto Fernández for corruption and gender violence is both functional to and exploited by the Javier Milei administration, official sources are already whispering an alert as to secret tremors. Or perhaps not so secret.
The epicentre of this latent eruption is the SIDE (Secretaría de Inteligencia del Estado) intelligence agency and its omnipresent foster figure, star spin doctor Santiago Caputo. Enmeshed in 1,001 missions empowered by the President and occupying the inner circle of decision-making along with Karina Milei, Caputo has a special soft spot for espionage.
Before dedicating himself to political marketing with his initial steps in one of Jaime Durán Barba’s consultancies, Caputo studied electronic engineering for three years at the National Defence University before one of his favourite professors advised him against continuing there if his aim was a career in the intelligence services.
The handling of such a sensitive state area was indeed one of Caputo’s short-circuits from the start of the current administration with former Cabinet chief Nicolás Posse, then in charge of Argentina’s intelligence services (under the name of AFI, the Agencia Federal de Inteligencia), which was headed by his nephew Silvestre Sívori. His ejection, officially explained by his apparent ineptitude, included a crossfire of rumours as to interference in the services – the government leaked that the detection of illegal espionage on officials was the straw which broke the camel’s back while Posse assures that it was his refusal to do so which precipitated his downfall.
Without Posse, Caputo has enjoyed free rein for his ideas and whims regarding intelligence policies. He renamed it SIDE and placed it under the Presidency with one of his confidants, engineering mechanic Sergio Neiffert, at its helm. Caputo redesigned its functions with the aid of his friend and partner Rodrigo Lugones, distributing them among four agencies (Servicio de Inteligencia Argentino, Agencia de Seguridad Nacional, Agencia Federal de Ciberseguridad and División de Asuntos Internos).
Curiously enough, of all those new divisions, only one remains headless – Asuntos Internos (Internal Affairs), which in theory controls all the rest. It is difficult, it would seem, to find the right person. A difficulty in terms of human resources habitual in the Milei team.
The complication could be linked to Caputo’s most controversial public decision – to boost the SIDE budget by over 100 billion pesos, and spending within three weeks 80 percent of those funds, which are discretionary and elude the audits to which other state departments are subjected. At least that is what it says on the government’s Presupuesto Abierto webpage for the National Budget, to which opposition deputies recur for their denunciations.
In reality, as the dynamics of confidential expenses are explained by sources, that money was not necessarily used in the last 20 days since the DNU emergency decree was published but the budget was overspent in anticipation of Congress rejection of that decree.
Regarding the Legislative Branch, there is a further limitation on verifying what SIDE does with those multi-million funds since the bicameral committee to monitor intelligence activities continues to be blocked on the government’s decision.
Nor should the capacity of this bicameral commission be exaggerated. Despite its existence, since the 1990s (so beloved by libertarians), reserve funds have been used to pay bonuses for the officials of all three branches of government, bribes, private business deals, extortion, operations and handouts for the friends of respective governments, including journalists.
Within the government, suspicions that Caputo is resorting to those kinds of practices are growing. Indeed, certain government offices are starting to ask questions about the origin of the funds earmarked for financing the digital pack patrolling friend and foe, for example. False online users are multiplying on social networks, audiences and subscriptions on streaming platforms are being bought up and people who frequent the Casa Rosada and work for Milei without need for formal appointment but who earn money and trigger envy are being whitewashed.
Such feelings grow as Caputo’s power expands while expensive recruitments into SIDE are leaked. These include the staff (whether genuine or ñoqui ghost employees) fired after the scandal over the Human Capital Ministry contracts via the Organisation of Ibero-American States (OEI, in its Spanish acronym) – a trick for disguising state hiring, often into the SIDE, while passing the chainsaw through other areas.
How much has a man named Maximiliano Keczeli to do with those transfers while climbing past the OEI scandal? The former Cabinet chief of Human Capital Minister Sandra Pettovello, Keczeli is installed in Madrid where, like another Caputo pal Lugones, he holds a post at the Argentine Consulate, yet not paid by the Foreign Ministry but by SIDE.
Keczeli is the subject of various conjectures these days. One of them is a known fact. He is the brother-in-law of Lucas Nejamkis, a man very close to Antonio ‘Jaime’ Stiuso, a historic figure associated with espionage who says that he has returned to a position of influence in the intelligence services now in the Caputo era. One of those influences is said to aim at Keczeli playing some role in the denunciation of Fabiola Yañez, who is also installed in the Spanish capital, as a middleman. That must be a fantasy.
A footnote – what is not a fantasy is that the panic generated among politicians, businessmen, trade unionists and celebrities by the possible forensic tests on the mobile telephone of a careless Alberto Fernández has opened up business opportunities. People who present themselves as belonging to SIDE (some of them tried for illegal espionage during the Mauricio Macri presidency, it is said) are offering their “cleaner” services to one and all. Mobile telephones and other incriminating devices have become objects of desire.
All this dirty linen has placed Caputo – who like any good eternal apprentice of espionage sometimes lets paranoia get the better of him – on the alert. He overdoes the almost covert meetings at La Rural or the Reserva Ecológica, a fact revealed by the user @criminaalmambo. The most delicate issues are at stake.
Earlier this month gunfire was sprayed at the Pinamar house of Fernando Pocino, another historic former (or not so former?) SIDE agent. No victims but the assault occurred in the same week in which Caputo was meeting up with Pinamar Mayor Juan Ibarguren, reportedly to convey his interest in installing an extra-official intelligence base in that resort. Something similar is allegedly being planned for San Nicolás, a key spot in the northern corridor between Buenos Aires and Rosario, where there was also a meeting with local mayor Santiago Passaglia.
Caputo has reportedly received other intimidating messages such as videos, photos and information about a masonic lodge meeting in which he participated at the Campo Hípico Militar cavalry training-grounds in Palermo, as revealed by another journalist Patricio del Pozo. SIDE chief Neiffert and his ‘Señora 8’ second-in-command María Laura Gnas have also allegedly been victims of this provocative shadowing while there have also been strange bursts of gunfire in this city.
These intelligence sectors in conflict threaten to throw the book at each other, exposing shady deals and problematic situations in private lives. As always, those who play with fire may end up burned.
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