Argentine Intelligence Agency locates 105,000 wiretaps illegally stored during Macri administration
Argentina's Federal Intelligence Agency (AFI) reported the discovery of 105,000 audio files illegally archived by the agency during the right-wing administration of former President Mauricio Macri (2015-19).
The practice appeared to be in violation of the country's 2001 Intelligence Law, which allows the AFI to wiretap Argentine nationals - though only with a court order, and on condition the files be destroyed once copies are relinquished to the requesting judge.
"The files were kept even after the judges requested them," AFI Director Cristina Caamaño explained. "The judges would receive CD copies - but not the original files, which are what we found."
It remains to be determined if all 105,000 files were themselves legally obtained, given Macri's history of ordering warrantless wiretaps against public figures and relatives alike - a policy that has already earned him indictments in 2010 and 2021.
According to the complaint, the AFI wiretaps were stored by a computer program, SIDEA - to be used at appropriate times at Macri's discretion.
"Conversations were stored that in many cases were not of interest to the investigations," Caamaño noted.
One such wiretap - on Macri's predecessor and chief rival, former President Cristina Kirchner - was leaked ahead of the 2017 mid-term elections, during which she was a Senate candidate (she is now Vice President).
Caamaño likewise denounced DAJUDECO - the agency created by Macri in a 2015 decree to administer federal wiretaps - of relaying telephone conversations to the AFI by using a digital address with a point-to-point system in order to evade detection.
At: https://www-pagina12-com-ar.translate.goog/401991-espionaje-ilegal-encontraron-105-000-escuchas-guardadas-por-?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp
Former Argentine President Mauricio Macri; his head of intelligence (and erstwhile business partner) Gustavo Arribas; and Arribas' deputy (and operational head of intelligence), Silvia Majdalani.
All three are among at least 49 officials indicted since 2020 for a policy of wide-reaching - though often warrantless - surveillance against both critics and supporters.
Macri faces numerous other charges - including self-dealing in a $750 million payout to toll road operators (in which he was a shareholder), the attempted write-off of 98% of his family's Postal Service debt, and the illicit shipment of anti-riot munitions and gear to Bolivia during that country's 2019 coup.
