\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t A group of 23 Argentine human rights organizations published a joint statement condemning a January decree issued by President Javier Milei granting the intelligence agency SIDE the power to arrest people.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the first time in democracy, intelligence agents have the power to arrest you,\u201d said the communiqu\u00e9, signed by the Center of Legal and Social Studies (in Spanish, CELS), Amnesty International Argentina, and Greenpeace, among others.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The statement went on to say that the order allows agents to \u201capprehend\u201d people without explaining what the criteria would be for doing so. It also stipulates that arrests can take place without judicial authorization or establishment of legal guarantees.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis paves the way for arbitrary arrests, persecution, and intimidation,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n
The decree mandates that 15 public offices that collect citizens\u2019 personal data share this information with the SIDE.\u00a0 According to the human rights groups, this will turn the decree into \u201ca tool for massive surveillance.\u201d They urged Congress to discuss and vote against the decree.<\/p>\n
An international presentation A group of NGOs has filed a presentation asking the United Nations to \u201cexpress their concern about the restriction of fundamental rights.\u201d They are also urging the UN to request information about the decree from the Argentine government.<\/p>\n
According to CELS litigation and legal defense head Diego Morales, the severity of the implications of the decree prompted the decision to voice their concerns publicly.<\/p>\n
The CELS has also made presentations to local courts and the Inter-American Human Rights System.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot knowing how your personal information will be used, whether you can be arrested or not, not knowing whether participating in a protest could lead to legal consequences\u00a0 \u2014 we felt it was important to discuss this,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Morales pointed to a change in the definition of counterintelligence. According to the decree, it will no longer be aimed at countering the potential infiltration of foreign powers but rather at allowing the SIDE to investigate and infiltrate actors who try to \u201cinfluence or impact decisions made by the national government.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
That change, Morales said, could allow intelligence services to investigate protests, political parties, or human rights groups.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis decree overrides a previous order banning intelligence sectors from carrying out \u2018repressive\u2019 and \u2018compulsive\u2019 tasks,\u201d Morales told the Herald.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Legally, the term \u201ccompulsive\u201d refers to actions carried out by law enforcement meant to deprive individuals of their freedom based on suspicions of wrongdoing.<\/p>\n
This means that the new decree could allow SIDE officers to detain people not only when they are allegedly committing crimes but also for merely being under investigation.<\/p>\n
Morales referred to the case of Am\u00e9rico Balbuena, a former intelligence officer from the Federal Police convicted in 2023 for posing as a journalist to spy on a community media outlet.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf an intelligence agent did the same, under the new decree, theoretically, there would be no legal consequences,\u201d said Morales.<\/p>\n
The decree incorporates the participation of the armed forces in intelligence tasks, which, according to the NGOs\u2019 presentation at the UN, is \u201ca dangerous historical setback.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cFor decades, Argentina worked to clearly separate defense (the military) from internal security (the police). It was a lesson learned from the dictatorship: the military should not exercise control over the civilian population,\u201d the document said.<\/p>\n
Alarming comparisons For Adam Scharpf, an associate professor at the University of Copenhagen\u2019s Department of Political Science, the decree and treatment of political dissent under the Milei administration are raising some alarming comparisons.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Scharpf told the Herald that, while Milei should not be equated \u201chistorically or morally\u201d with the leaders of Argentina\u2019s last military dictatorship, he is echoing some of its key rhetorical elements.<\/p>\n
As an example, he cited the libertarian\u2019s repeated warnings about \u201ca supposedly world-conquering socialism,\u201d which he voiced prominently at the 2024 World Economic Forum.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat rhetoric frames political opponents not as adversaries within a democratic system, but as existential enemies of the nation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce political dissent is construed as a security threat, monitoring these actors, spying on them, and mapping their networks can easily come to appear not only legitimate but necessary from the government\u2019s perspective,\u201d Scharph added.<\/p>\n
The professor, who is also the co-author of an upcoming book on authoritarian politics called Making a Career in Dictatorship, said that, in that light, \u201cthe proposed expansion of powers for the intelligence service SIDE is not surprising.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cComparative research shows that populist-authoritarian leaders frequently seek to personalize security institutions and repurpose them as political tools to consolidate power\u2014a pattern observable in a range of contemporary democracies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He concluded that, if the decree is not repealed by Congress, there are severe potential pitfalls not only for the agency but for the individual agents as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At an institutional level, he explained, the decree risks turning the SIDE into a \u201ccompliant political instrument of the executive.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the individual level, on the other hand, it creates powerful career incentives for agents to advance professionally by engaging in practices that violate citizens\u2019 rights and \u201cundermine core democratic principles.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A group of 23 Argentine human rights organizations published a joint statement condemning a January decree issued by President Javier Milei granting the intelligence agency SIDE the power to arrest people. \u201cFor the first time in democracy, intelligence agents have the power to arrest you,\u201d said the communiqu\u00e9, signed by the Center of Legal and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":27721,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1442,7567,59,4797],"tags":[2188,8132,86,4794],"class_list":["post-27720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-human-rights","category-intelligence","category-politics","category-side","tag-human-rights","tag-intelligence","tag-politics","tag-side"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}