Buenos Aires, November 16, 2025 — Total News Agency (TNA) — The Secretariat of State Intelligence (SIDE) is on the brink of an internal collapse following the irrevocable resignation of its head, Sergio Neifert, last Thursday. The agency has been in a 'cryogenic suspension' for 20 days, TNA has learned.
This crisis within SIDE is intertwined with the corruption investigation at the National Disability Agency (ANDIS), where judicial cannons are now more precisely aimed at Diego Spagnuolo, the former executive director, and Miguel Ángel Calvete, a key operator in the scheme to steer contracts worth over 43 billion pesos.
However, his management ran into a lack of understanding and then internal resistance fueled by two key figures brought in from Ferrocarriles Argentinos: Jorge Burgos and Gonzalo Ruiz Díaz, both appointed by Caputo, the presidential advisor known as the 'Wizard of the Kremlin'.
'He was the civilian link to the underworld military; now, recycled in a state-owned company, he manages price competitions from the outside,' details a judicial report.
Although the Executive initially rejected the resignation (and keeps it secret) and asked him to continue in the office sharing decisions with the administrative undersecretary José Francisco Lago Rodríguez —a 35-year-old official with little experience—, Neifert flatly refused, arguing structural incompatibilities and an erosion of his authority.
Funded with secret funds —budgeted for intelligence operations—, the trip was described by Total News Agency as a 'spy mission to protect the Argentine driver', in a note that joked about the disconnect between the national crisis and such extravagances.
'The president isn't taking vacations, boys.'
'The country engulfed in political and economic fires, and three intelligence officials decide to go on a trip to Baku with secret funds.'
This break not only accelerates the restructuring of the intelligence agency but also exposes the cracks in the heart of the government, where the influence of Santiago Caputo clashes head-on with the political growth of Karina Milei, post-elections, and the interests of Martín and Lule Menem.
Three men from SIDE, an impossible mission in Azerbaijan and Colapinto a victim of Albon
Neifert, a low-profile operator with a career in the Municipality of Malvinas Argentinas and Acumar, had taken office during the post-electoral transition, with the mission of modernizing a SIDE decimated by cuts and inherited scandals.
'It's the end of an era of improvisation that is no longer tolerated,' confided a former SIDE official dedicated to academia to this medium, on condition of anonymity.
Now many remember Lago Rodríguez's trip to Baku, Azerbaijan, along with the director, Alejandro Colombo and other adventurers, to attend Franco Colapinto's Formula 1 race. Prosecutor Franco Picardi, in his report to Judge Sebastián Casanello, revealed compromising chats and videos: Spagnuolo visiting Calvete's house in the Campo Grande country club to allegedly deliver five million pesos in cash, in addition to 80,000 dollars found in a safe deposit box of the former director —far from the 25,000 declared—.
'The Menems insist on cleaning up the wasp's nest; they see an opportunity in this, sources from the ruling party signal. The Menem family, excluded from the cause —neither accused nor summoned as witnesses—, is pressuring from the General Secretariat of the Presidency for a profound restructuring not only in intelligence but in all areas under Caputo's influence.'
President of the Chamber of Chinese Supermarkets (CASRECH), Calvete operated as a 'caficho' (broker) in public tenders, managing off-the-books payments for laboratories and suppliers. Milei met this week with her political table to define changes in SIDE and other areas, absorbing Migrations and Renaper into trusted teams.
Among the accusations, the appointment of his son —of only 25 years and without relevant experience— to a position of power stands out, seen as blatant nepotism in a sensitive body.
SIDE, in limbo, awaits a chief for the fifth floor who does not arrive, but who could redefine the real power in La Libertad Avanza.
Supporter of the 'Carapintadas' of Aldo Rico in the Easter uprising of 1987, he exhibited an anti-Semitic line that linked him to the AMIA cause: recordings of an informant, Sergio Nantilo, point him along with former non-commissioned officer Jorge Pacífico as anti-Semites and for placing an explosive device in a shop in Once a year before the 1994 attack.
The Justice is investigating an 'illicit association' with an 'explicit payment window', where Spagnuolo entered homes with suspicious backpacks.
In this board, Caputo seems to be losing ground: his 'whetstone' —as they call him in the halls of Balcarce 50— accelerates with the cabinet restructuring, where Karina Milei consolidates her hard core.
By Daniel Romero
