Argentine deputies reject intelligence budget requested by Milei

The Chamber of Deputies of Argentina rejected a decree by far-right Javier Milei, which granted 100 billion pesos (more than 100 million dollars) in expenses reserved for the State Intelligence Secretariat (SIDE).

As planned by the Argentine president, this additional money would be used to “strengthen the national intelligence system.”

With 156 votes in favor, 52 against and six abstentions, the lower house voted to discard the decree of necessity and urgency (DNU) 656/2024, which must be dealt with in the second instance by the senators.

The ruling party thus suffered a severe setback when it received the opposite vote even from its allies from the Republican Proposal party (Pro, center-right), led by former president Mauricio Macri (2015-2019).

The decision comes after legislator Maximiliano Ferraro denounced that the Government used 80% of the funds in the three weeks since the publication of the DNU.

Regarding this use of resources, the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, accused his Argentine counterpart, Javier Milei, of spending more than 100 million dollars (about 90 million euros) of the southern country’s budget on bot attacks against the Caribbean nation.

“What bot farms are attacking us in Argentina? The Milei bot farms, from fascism, with money from the Argentine Government budget, spent more than 100 million dollars in the attacks of the last two weeks,” he said.

His allies don’t support him either.

The right-wing party that supports Milei in the Argentine Congress, Propuesta Republicana, declared on social networks its reasons for not supporting this new disbursement, alleging that there is currently no money in the country for this type of expense.

“We supported the (Milei) government in all the measures that supported change in Argentina (the Bases Law, the expansion of genetic data for security, and more). But this decree of 100 billion for intelligence, in a context in which ‘there is no money’, and without clarifying the use of the funds, is not the change,” he indicated in his official X el Pro account.

“Economic progress requires strong and transparent institutions, and an austere Government. In the Pro, these values ​​are non-negotiable,” the party added in a publication titled: ‘This is not the change.’

This setback for the Milei Government is added to the loss of control of the Bicameral Commission for the Supervision of Intelligence Organizations and Activities, whose direction was left in the hands of left-wing deputy Martín Lousteau.