Buenos Aires, November 11, 2025 – The deputy from the PRO party and bloc chief, Cristian Ritondo, in tune with Santilli, issued a stern warning to the government regarding the fate of the National Registry of Persons (Renaper), arguing that the body must remain under the Ministry of the Interior, and not pass, as proposed, to the command structure controlled by Minister Patricia Bullrich in her Security ministry. However, the episode reveals that the reorganization of state functions is not mere bureaucracy: it affects governability, public perception, and the distribution of power among key ministries. For Ritondo, preserving Renaper in the Interior is to safeguard the civility of the state, uphold citizens' rights, and prevent identification and voter rolls from falling under a security logic. According to government sources, the body was initially assigned to the Ministry of Security along with Migrations, but it was later decided that it would return to the Interior. In his speech, Ritondo stated that “there is very sensitive data about people to protect” and that “this is a discussion that has been going on for a long time in Argentina, and in democracy it was reversed.” The controversy arises amid the structural changes driven by President Javier Milei's government, which through DNU 793/2025 — recently published in the Official Gazette — reorganized competencies among ministries, including migration policy, the registration and identification of citizens, and the scope of Renaper. This type of administrative adjustment has generated internal frictions in the alliance, and Ritondo did not let it pass. During the swearing-in of Diego Santilli at the head of the Ministry of the Interior, Ritondo did not hide his displeasure: “There are some things that generate doubts for me, for example, Renaper. Renaper has been and is part of civil use.” This position reinforces the perception of sectors of PRO that seek to preserve the territorial and political profile of the Interior against the advance of the security apparatus. The political backdrop is clear: the new organizational chart reformed by Milei sought to concentrate key functions in the Chief of Cabinet and Minister Bullrich, but the reaction was immediate in the coalition upon seeing that the space of the Ministry of the Interior was weakened. Ritondo represents a strategic wing of PRO and his statements anticipate possible internal clashes over the distribution of power in the Executive. The response will be in the coming days, when the decree is adjusted and the new final organizational chart is communicated. The registry manages identity documents, passports, and the electoral roll, tasks that require a civil approach, independent of the handling of internal security. The legislator interpreted that moving that control to Security “is to leave an institutional tool under a portfolio that prioritizes persecution and not civil rights.” I say this with total honesty.
