Secretariat of Intelligence of the State (, mostly known by its acronym SIDE) is the premier intelligence agency of the Argentine Republic and head of its National Intelligence System.
Chaired by the Secretary of State Intelligence, a special member of the Cabinet of Ministers, the Secretariat of Intelligence was a technical and operational service charged with the collection and production of intelligence and counterintelligence in internal and foreign areas, as well as the analysis and formation of a national intelligence strategy in order to handle state affairs. The Secretariat was charged with the duty of producing a complete intelligence cycleThe Intelligence Cycle, Central Intelligence Agency. URL accessed on April 23, 2006. for the government. Structurally, S.I. had the biggest intelligence-gathering capabilities in Argentina, as it has numerous delegations within Argentina as well as foreign operational bases and delegations.
Under law, the Secretariat was subordinated to the PresidencyPresidency of Argentina. URL accessed on April 23, 2006. and is ruled by secret decrees and laws.In 2005, the Senate of Argentina abolished secret laws, it is not clear how it has affected the Secretariat. Even though the official acronym was renamed to S.I. as the new intelligence system became active,Article 51 of the Intelligence Reform Law 25.520 renames SIDE (Secretaría de Inteligencia de Estado) to S.I. (Secretaría de Inteligencia) and abolishes secret decree 416/76. during most of its history it was called Secretaría de Inteligencia de Estado (Secretariat of State Intelligence, SIDE) and it still is referred to as SIDE by the public.
On January 26, 2015, after the case of the prosecutor Alberto Nisman's death, President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner announced she was proposing legislation that would dissolve the (SI) and opening a new intelligence agency called the Federal Intelligence Agency (AFI).Agencia Federal de Inteligencia , Law 27126 - Modification President Javier Milei closed the AFI and restored the SIDE in 2024.El Gobierno disolvió la AFI y anunció cambios en el Sistema de Inteligencia Nacional on Infobae, 15 Jul 2024
History
The Secretariat of Intelligence was created in 1946 when Juan Perón's first presidency established it by Executive Decree 337/46 under the denomination of Coordinación de Informaciones de Estado (State Intelligence Coordination, CIDE). Its mission was to act as a national intelligence agency to be run by civilian personnel and to handle foreign and domestic intelligence operations for the federal government.
Before CIDE was established, national intelligence was jointly handled by the División de Informaciones (Information Division, DI) of the Presidency, and the military intelligence services such as the Servicio de Inteligencia del Ejército (Army Intelligence Service, SIE) and the Servicio de Inteligencia Naval (Naval Intelligence Service, SIN). Even though throughout Argentina's history military intelligence organs have been involved in handling both internal and external intelligence, reforms enacted in the last few decades have legally given them a role alongside civilian managed services in the National Intelligence System.Intelligence Reform Law 25.520 also created the National Directorate of Strategic Military Intelligence, charged with the coordination of all the Argentine Armed Forces military intelligence services.
The Secretariat (as it is commonly referred) had its first structural and functional reform in 1956, under the Pedro Aramburu government when by Executive Decree 776/56 of January 20, CIDE adopted the name Secretaría de Informaciones de Estado (Secretariat of State Information), and the subsequent famous acronym "SIDE". The newly restructured agency was closely modeled on the British intelligence system.
During Juan Carlos Onganía's government, SIDE was under the administration of General Señorans, one of the most well regarded secretaries of intelligence of all time. During those years, SIDE started to orchestrate its first complex foreign espionage missions, the staff was increased substantially to about 1,200, and the knowledge and operational capabilities were dramatically improved.
During Señorans administration, many Argentine women began participating in what was then a male-only field. The Secretariat began appreciating certain advantages of the female sex, especially when operations required the exploitation of human weaknesses. However, in 1966, Señorans restructured the Secretariat, expelling 900 employees (of about 1,200 total), including all of the female intelligence operatives contracted at the time. It has been noted that Señorans had a phobia of females, and would not tolerate women working in administrative positions.
In that same year, a failed kidnapping attempt of the Soviet Consul in Buenos Aires, led the USSR to enact a formal protest, threatening to take the matters to international organizations. Onganía, against his will, had no other choice but to ask Señorans to resign, the Secretary in his final statement exposed that "Consul Petrov commands a group of spies of the KGB in Argentina".
After Señorans departure, women regained their positions in the civil intelligence community, but it was at that time, with the onset of the Cold War, that the CIA began taking special interest in SIDE. The growth of communist groups and guerrillas in Latin America, backed by Fidel Castro's regime, as well as the special interest the Soviet Union began to take in Latin America, made the American intelligence community influence what was then thought as an area of minor concern to American interests in the war. The Secretariat of Intelligence was no exception, the 'communist problem' was made a priority, and surveillance of foreign embassies and delegations of communist countries became common.
Secret law Nº 20.195/73 came into effect on February 28, 1973 during the government of General Lanusse, literally establishing the mission, functions, personnel, and other important aspects of the agency; it is also known as the secret decree Nº 1.792/73, dated March 9, 1973.
On May 13, 1976, President Jorge Rafael Videla issued Executive Decree 416 changing the name of the agency to Secretaría de Inteligencia de Estado or "SIDE". Under the National Reorganization Process, SIDE transformed itself into a secret police conducting espionage on guerrilla organizations, labor unions, or any other organization or person considered subversive, or a supporter of subversive activities. SIDE also took part in coordinating Operation Condor with other Latin American intelligence services.
After the return of democracy in 1983, during Raúl Alfonsín's government, SIDE began renewing its staff, thus becoming a civilian intelligence agency focusing its activities entirely on national interests.Argentina's intelligence after ten years of democracy, Federation of American Scientists. URL accessed on April 23, 2006. In December 2001, the Intelligence Reform Law was approved,Intelligence Reform Law 25.520 created the National Intelligence System. changing the structure, denomination and functions to adapt it to the new National Intelligence System.
In February 2001, during the Fernando de la Rúa government, SIDE was suffering from budget cuts (reduced by half) and political pressures to renew itself. The staff was reduced by half, 1,300 personnel were laid off. One of the reasons given for the clean-up were that many staff members had been involved in human rights violations during the National Reorganization Process. This restructuring included laying off personnel who were past their retirement age according to the agency's standards, and removing most of the personnel from the return to democracy under the Alfonsín administration.
During October 2003, under Néstor Kirchner's government, a crackdown on illegal phone taps, as well as political and ideological espionage was ordered to Secretary of Intelligence Sergio Acevedo. More than 160 personnel were expelled from the organization for violations of regulations. An internal security review was also conducted, later producing a report stating several security holes and cases of corruption and theft in the organization (i.e., theft of food, extraction of gasoline from cars and poor security at facilities).
Counter-terrorism In the aftermath of the 1992 Israeli Embassy attack in Buenos Aires, SIDE augmented its focus on terrorist activities in the Triple border region. The lingering threat of another act of Islamic terrorism on Argentine soil, especially against Jewish entities in Buenos Aires, required the Secretariat to adapt to a previously unknown national security threat.
Foreign intelligence agencies cooperated in training on subjects such as Islamic terrorism and how to neutralize it. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency provided SIDE with extensive training, and experts from all over the world were contracted to teach classes in the National Intelligence School. SIDE also began instructing its personnel on Persian and Arabic languages and history, and how to handle operations with people and organizations pertaining to such cultures.
After the 1994 AMIA Bombing, SIDE recognized that Islamic terrorism had become an extremely serious threat to national security. A plan codenamed Operation Centaur (Operación Centauro) to monitor terrorist organizations on the Triple border was orchestrated in cooperation with the CIA, and included phone taps, mail interceptions, and covert surveillance of many suspects.The Latin Connection, The Jamestown Foundation. URL accessed on April 23, 2006.
Its reports detailed the existence and activities of terrorist organizations in the area, which benefited from the huge black market in Paraguay and served as a financial laundering center for other organizations abroad. A 1997 report including evidence of such activities was shared with the intelligence agencies of the United States, Brazil, Paraguay, France and Germany. The Sala Patria group,Sala Patria was a covert operations group dependant of the Undersecretariat of Foreign Intelligence. Two famous staff members named by the Argentine press frequently, Alejandro Brousson and Patricio Miguel Finnen led this group. Sala Patria was first assigned to capture Enrique Gorriarán Merlo and then leading the AMIA investigation on foreign soil. The group was also involved in famous operations such as the Nasrim Mokhtari fiasco, and the Telledin bribes. The group was recently dissolved, both Patricio Miguel Finnen and Alejandro Brousson no longer work for SIDE, and the group now became a division known as "Division 34: Transnational Crime and International Terrorism". It is important to note that "Sala" is a group of people from many divisions of the organization put together to work on a specific operation, i.e., Sala Independencia, created to work on the investigation of the Israeli embassy bombing. formed to investigate clues about the AMIA bombing outside of Argentina, started operating in Paraguay and gave crucial information that led to the capture of many suspected terrorists and the neutralization of a suspected plan to bomb the U.S. Embassy in Asunción, Paraguay.
Organization SIDE is the head of the National Intelligence System, and also the largest intelligence agency of Argentina.Executive and legislative oversight of the intelligence system in Argentina, Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces. URL accessed on April 23, 2006. It depends on the Presidency. It reports to the President of Argentina, who is required to set the national intelligence plan and policy.