Javier Milei's government announced the new 'National Intelligence Policy' of SIDE

In a decisive step for National Strategic Security, the National Government approved, for the first time in twenty years, under the leadership of the newly appointed head Cristian Auguadra, a new National Intelligence Policy, with the aim of updating the guidelines and general objectives of the National Intelligence System (SIN).

This approval comes after a period of more than three decades of "significant deterioration" in the SIN, which undermined the functioning of democratic institutions and left the Argentine Republic vulnerable to risks and threats. Official documents recall that the country was the target of terrorist attacks in 1992 and 1994 against the Embassy of the State of Israel and the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA), events that "still have not been fully clarified."

Within the framework of the restructuring promoted by the National State, which seeks to achieve an "effective performance" of the SIN as a pillar of National Strategic Security, the now-defunct Federal Intelligence Agency (AFI) was dissolved by Decree No. 614/24. In its place, the State Intelligence Secretariat (SIDE) was established, reporting to the Office of the President.

Additionally, to achieve a higher degree of technical sophistication, four decentralized bodies were created: the Argentine Intelligence Service (SIA), the National Security Agency (ASN), the Federal Cybersecurity Agency (AFC), and the Internal Affairs Division (DAI). This modernization process aims for Argentina to regain its intelligence function, enabling authorities to "anticipate possible risks and threats."

The Six Fundamental Points

The SIDE confirmed that the new Policy establishes the strategic guidelines and general objectives that must guide the work of the entire System. These guidelines derive from the Nation's strategic interests, which include ensuring sovereignty and autonomy, protecting territorial integrity, protecting the life, liberty, property, and rights of inhabitants, ensuring the validity of the democratic, republican, and federal system, and preserving strategic resources.

The six general objectives, detailed in the official SIDE statement, are as follows:

1. Position the Argentine Republic on the international stage. This point is directly related to the Strategic Guideline of the Power Dispute in the foreign policy arena, seeking for national intelligence to identify risks, threats, and opportunities that impact security and foreign policy.

2. Preserve the country's sovereignty and strategic autonomy. The document warns of the need to "counteract external intelligence activities" and monitor state external influence in decision-making and discourse processes that may "condition institutional autonomy."

3. Protect strategic resources and essential infrastructures. Special emphasis is placed on the preservation of strategic resources, including natural resources, warning of the global pressure on lithium, unconventional gas, and aquifers. Protection extends to strategic infrastructures such as energy, telecommunications, and logistics.

4. Prevent and combat terrorism and organized crime in all its forms. The system must anticipate, identify, recognize, monitor, and analyze risks arising from terrorism and organized crime, which manifests as a "parallel power structure," to prevent and neutralize possible actions.

5. Anticipate and counter threats in the cyberspace of national interest. Given the growing consolidation of cyberspace as an "operational domain" and "attack surface," the SIDE, through the new Federal Cybersecurity Agency (AFC), will seek to deter and counter threats caused by strategic actors.

6. Counteract external intelligence activities that affect national interests. This is the core of Counterintelligence, whose mission is to "identify, monitor, analyze, and counteract" influence, infiltration, and manipulation operations carried out by external or non-state actors.

The State Intelligence Secretariat concluded that these provisions will guide the efforts of the National Intelligence System, under the direction of the SIDE, with the purpose of "consolidating a modern, secure, sovereign state founded on the values of liberty."

The 2025 National Intelligence Policy document emphasizes that these guidelines are the roadmap to transform Argentina into a "modern, sovereign power founded on the values of liberty," assuming "National Intelligence, permanent vigilance for the Strategic Security of the Argentine Republic". This new doctrine prioritizes monitoring the foreign presence in the South Atlantic, including Malvinas Islands, South Georgia, and South Sandwich Islands, and keeps the Antarctic projection with the thirteen bases that the Nation has maintained since 1904.