Argentina’s President Javier Milei has issued a sweeping emergency decree to restructure the intelligence agency, sparking concerns of an authoritarian shift targeting political opposition and social discontent. Myriam Bregman, congresswoman from the Left Front, has been the first to speak out, demanding that congress block the decree.

The decree, which was proposed on New Year’s Eve and published this Friday, January 2, in the Official Gazette, severely modifies National Intelligence Law No. 25,520, greatly expanding the powers of the State Intelligence Secretariat (SIDE), a key agency in the state espionage system. The intelligence apparatus will now report to the General Secretariat of the Presidency, headed by Karina Milei, the President’s sister.

As part of the reform put forward by the President, intelligence operatives may now arrest suspects when “protecting” facilities, assets, or personnel; execute detentions in cases of “flagrant” crimes or upon judicial request; and use force to repel or stop attacks that purportedly put intelligence operations at risk. Opposition forces are alerting that this moves the SIDE closer to a “political police” force at the service of the president.

For its part the Left in Argentina is already reacting. Myriam Bregman, the PTS-FITU deputy, who has been fighting illegal espionage on the population for years, today denounced this “extremely serious” move from the government, arguing that “anti-democratic advances such as this must be confronted and defeated and we should avoid normalization of authoritarianism.”

In a press conference on Friday, Bregman criticized the illegality of the decree.

Decrees of Necessity and Urgency are not meant to be put forward when Congress is in recess. That is not their function. What would be the ‘urgency’ of implementing this on the last working day of the year? The DNU makes no sense in terms of the timing of its issuance. And in terms of legality, it is completely illegal. You cannot decree on the life, liberty, and personal information of all inhabitants. You can’t say, ‘I would like the SIDE to arrest people and have such an information gathering center.’ It doesn’t work that way.”

Bregman also said that President Milei is doing this to discourage social protest and impose his austerity plans against workers, such as the new labor reform. From the United States, the left must stand in solidarity with Argentine workers facing a right-wing government led by Donald Trump’s lackey, Javier Milei, who much like Trump, seeks to silence social protest through repression and espionage.

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