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Intelligence services are state agencies dedicated to collecting, processing and analyzing information considered “sensitive” for the State. Its declared objective is usually the defense of “national security”, the prevention of complex crimes and the protection of the strategic interests of the country.
However, in practice, in Argentina and in the world, these organizations have historically operated as social control tools, political persecution and defense of the interests of the ruling class, above any democratic legality.
The Argentine intelligence system is a complex network, where civil and military, national and provincial organizations overlap, each with its own networks and agendas. SIDE is the main civil agency, but there are intelligence addresses in all armed and security forces (army, armed, air force, gendarmerie, prefecture, federal and provincial police, penitentiary service, etc.
First Background: Espionage and Repression
Espionage in Argentina has more than a century of history. Already in 1918-1919, after the Russian revolution and in the post-war context, Embassies of France, the United States, England and Italy set up espionage networks in Buenos Aires and Montevideo to monitor anarchist and revolutionary militants, fearing the extension of the revolution to the continent. The Local Police also developed intelligence and social order divisions to chase “dangerous people” and “subversive” movements, especially after the tragic week of 1919 and the rise of the labor movement.
In 1920, the South American Police Conference strengthened the exchange of information between police officers from the continent, consolidating state espionage on workers and left organizations.
However, the qualitative leap occurs in 1946, when Juan Domingo Perón creates by decree the coordination of information of the Presidency of the Nation (CIPN), which is then transformed into the State Intelligence Secretariat (SIDE). The objective was to centralize the “sensitive” information and control the political opposition, especially to the union and political left. From the beginning, the SIDE was a civil organism, with agents trained under the influence of the CIA and the Mossad, and with a strong anti -communist imprint, in tune with the climate of the cold war.
During the so-called Liberating Revolution (1955), the SIDE is restructured following the model of the British CIA and MI-5, and is dedicated to chasing the Peronist resistance and the left. Under the dictatorship of Onganía (1966), the listenings and clicks of phones are inaugurated from the Entel offices, and hundreds of military are incorporated into the SIDE.
In the 60s and 70s, state espionage becomes systematic and brutal. The systematic intelligence plan (PSI) is created, where the SIDE, Battalion 601 of the Army, the Dipba (Buenos Aires Police), the D2 Cordoba and other organisms cross information and prepare black lists of workers, student and left militants. Agents are trained in “anti -subversive” tasks and infiltrate popular organizations. Battalion 601, for example, had more than 4,300 agents, most civilians, many of which were later recycled as union bureaucrats.
Constitutional governments and continuity: from Alfonsín to the present
With the return of constitutional governments in 1983, far from dismantling the intelligence apparatus, civil governments recycle and use it for their own purposes. Raúl Alfonsín leaves the SIDE in the hands of radical militants, who work side by side with former dictatorship agents to infiltrate labor mobilizations and make provocations. During the menemism, the SIDE becomes a key piece for the cover -up of the AMIA attack and for the assembly of judicial causes against opponents.
In the 2001 crisis, the alliance government uses SIDE to pay bribes to legislators (Banelco Law) and to infiltrate popular assemblies. Bajo Duhalde, the SIDE participates in the cover -up of the Pueyrredón Bridge massacre, trying to install the version of a “confrontation between piqueteros” to justify the murder of Kosteki and Santillán.
During the Kirchner governments, the SIDE budget is increased and espionage is professionalized, with agents trained in American agencies. The “X Project” of Gendarmerie, the infiltration of Américo Balbuena in the Walsh agency and the continuity of Jaime Stiuso as a key operator show the persistence of political and social espionage.
With macrismo, the AFI is involved in scandals of illegal espionage to opponents, trade unionists and even own officials, as well as political operations in cases such as Santiago Maldonado.
The suspicions that exist today regarding the intervention of intelligence services in the crisis of the Government of Freedom advances are then more than part of a long history.
In addition to direct repression, the services have operated as a “state within the State”, intervening in political internal ones, assembling and braking judicial causes, and guaranteeing the impunity of the powerful. From menemism, one of its main functions is control and lobby on federal justice, especially in Comodoro Py, where the fate of officials, businessmen and politicians is decided. The AFI and its predecessors have been the tool to appoint judges, operate on prosecutors and guarantee the impunity of the governments on duty.
On the other hand, the services have been involved in the main scandals and crimes of recent history: cover -up of the AMIA attack, the Pueyrredón bridge massacre, the death of Nisman, the espionage to relatives of victims and human rights organizations, among others. Far from being exceptions, these facts show the structural nature of state espionage in Argentina.
Despite the name changes and the promises of “democratization”, the intelligence apparatus remains intact. No government, since 1983, has opened the secret archives or dismantled the network of espionage and repression. The reserved funds, the lack of democratic control and the impunity of the agents are the norm. Intelligence services are still a threat to democratic freedoms and a persecution tool against those fighting.
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