The Argentine government denounced on Monday (1) an “illegal foreign intelligence operation designed to disinade and destabilize the electoral process” before the legislative elections that are expected to occur between this month and October. The prosecution was presented by the Ministry of Security to the Federal Court and released by the Presidential Press Office.
According to an official statement, the action would have involved “foreign influences” with methods compared to “operations attributed to Russian and Chavist interests.”
“This misinformation campaign responds to foreign influences, with standards similar to operations attributed to Russian and Chavist interests,” the advisory said in a statement published on social network X.
The complaint comes after the disclosure, on Friday (29), of new audios attributed to Karina Milei, secretary general of the presidency and sister of President Javier Milei. The material was published by journalist Mauro Federico on the streaming channel Carnavalwho said he was about 50 minutes of recordings.
These new audios arise amid the corruption scandal involving the National Disability Agency (andis). In previous leaks, an agency employee described a bribery scheme that would have Karina Milei as a beneficiary. The excerpts revealed on Friday by journalist Mauro Federico do not make direct reference to andis, but expose internal disputes in the government coalition Freedom advances. For the government, staggered disclosure of recordings is part of a maneuver to artificially associate the president’s sister with corruption and thus “illegitally condition” the electoral process.
Faced with the leakage, Casa Rosada asked the court to prevent the circulation of the recordings. The request was accepted, and a precautionary order determined “the end of dissemination solely from audios recorded in the nation’s house of government.”
In addition, the Ministry of Security requested search warrants and seizure at the residence of journalist Mauro Federico, at the home of another presenter of CarnavalJorge Rial, and in the facilities of the channel itself. The complaint also cited Pablo Toviggino, treasurer of the Argentine Football Association (AFA), appointed as linked to the platform, and requested measures against the media entrepreneur Franco Bindi. In the document, Bindi is described as “lawyer linked to inorganic intelligence agents and companion of national deputy Marcela Pagano, who has been conspiring for months to systematically weakening and boycotting the political space (LLA) that allowed him to conquer his chair.”
Marcela Pagano, who was elected Male’s party deputy but later broke with the governing bloc to form a dissident bench, reacted to the accusations in local press interviews. She denied any involvement in the dissemination of Karina’s audios and returned the prosecution, attributing responsibility for the crisis to the chief of staff, Guillermo Franco, to whom she accused of conducting a “spy war” within the government.
