Pablo de León
03/01/2020 - 16:09
- Clarín.com
- Politics
Alberto Ángel Fernández finished reviewing his speech this Sunday, at 10 in the morning. He did it in the presidential residence of Olivos, on his personal computer, and just at that time, he sent to print the final version he read, with a pair of glasses different from those of the initial speech of December 10.
He ended up writing alone but with the collaboration, principal, of the Secretary of State, Gustavo Béliz; from the presidential advisor (and social anthropologist) Alejandro Grimson; and all, under the legal and trustworthy look of the Legal and Technical Secretary, Vilma Lidia Ibarra.
In Olivos, he got on the helicopter and, along with his partner Fabiola Yañez, got on the presidential car with which he went to the National Congress. The ministers were apart, in a combi, all together.
He began, on time, his speech at 12 o'clock and spoke for 79 minutes. He started talking about the inheritance and pointed, strongly, against the administration that preceded it, that of Mauricio Macri, during a facet of his speech. He announced the legalization of abortion, a profound judicial reform and referred to the restructuring of the Federal Intelligence Agency.
In the final section of his speech before the Legislative Assembly he said that he will modify the Intelligence Law, by decree, to prevent the Federal Intelligence Agency from performing "repressive tasks" and possessing "compulsive powers or police functions", in addition to deactivating his participation in "criminal investigation tasks as auxiliaries of Justice".
He did so by saying that he made the "irreversible decision to end forever with the basements of democracy" and that he will order the AFI to declassify the secret testimonies provided by intelligence agents in the trials in which the attack on the AMIA 1994 and the responsibility of state officials in covering it up.
"That institutional quality that we proclaim will only be achieved if we all help to know the truth; that is why, 26 years after the AMIA attack, I will order the AFI to declassify the secret testimonies provided by intelligence agents in the trials in which it was investigated the fact and the responsibility of state officials in the cover-up; we will do the same with all reserved documentation that exists in the organism on the subject, "promised the head of state.
These paragraphs were written after the President agreed to the joint work of his chief of staff, Santiago Cafiero, with the intervener at the former SIDE, prosecutor Cristina Caamaño. The first preparations of the intervener were to shrink the agent plant, removing from the agency a team of designated by the management of Gustavo Arribas and Silvia Majdalani, who wanted to leave about 400 agents in the house of spies. Therefore, of the 1,400 agents left by the macrismo, today the AFI has 1,200 on its payroll.
For this reason, the differential axis that the interventionist Caamaño achieved is that of having reduced to a maximum what are reserved expenses , something to which the President defined in his speech as “basement of democracy”. For example, in January, the AFI intervention would have reduced the reserved expenses by 90%.
Some of that is what the President intends, who is preparing to sign a DNU in the next fifteen days that modifies the Intelligence law to prevent members of the intelligence services from performing repressive tasks or conducting criminal investigations, in addition to not being able to participate more in the wiretapping: he wants the head of state to cut the link between the Judiciary and the intelligence secretariat.
It also remains to know what will determine the administrative part about what each spy does, something for which the current management sent agents to courses at the National School of Intelligence, except those who are currently "in the field" with tasks in areas such as terrorism and drug trafficking.
The intervention of Caamaño -which takes 60 days of the 180 days determined to act- determined that, between salaries and capital expenses (for example, fixing a car), the reserved expenses could be lowered by 90%. Does this mean savings? In principle yes, because in this way, the AFI asks the Treasury for less resources. But it is still in limbo - for public opinion - what destination will the 1.4 billion budgeted for 2020 have for AFI. So far, of the presidential promise to send part of that money to the "Plan Against Hunger," nothing has been implemented.
But from the central administration they celebrate that, in January, 90% of the reserved expenses destined were saved: “Before here, everything was secrecy and it was not known if the money was destined for some drug trafficking and terrorism or for political persecution” , ensure those who participate in the daily management of the current AFI.
Anyway, Alberto's Government has not resolved its 2020 Budget and therefore, it is not known what remains, how much was reduced and what they will do with the intelligence secretariat and its soapy agents. Another idea that defends the current management is that the “inorganic” agents are over, that is, everyone who acts on behalf of the Federal Intelligence Agency is registered on their payroll.
Finally, also in the next few days, the secret information of the attack on the AMIA will be opened, that is, the declassified files will be made public. All that material, today is stored in an AFI warehouse.
