Ally of Argentina's Macri reveals that his administration spies on opponents, and even Lionel Messi

The lead columnist for the Buenos Aires news daily La Nación, Carlos Pagni, revealed that under President Mauricio Macri, Argentina's Federal Intelligence Agency (AFI) is influenced by the president's confidants and business partners, and that prominent political figures and private citizens alike are being wiretapped.

"The intelligence agency is influenced by the president of the Boca Juniors football club, Daniel Angelici, and his 3rd vice-president, Darío Richarte," Pagni wrote. "They control the AFI's director of Finance, Juan José Gallea, and its Legal Affairs director, Juan Sebastián de Stefano - boyfriend of Silvia Loreley Bianco, the new head of the Buenos Aires Council of Magistrates" and a Macri ally.

Angelici, 52, is a close Macri business associate and confidant. He is currently under investigation over allegedly funneling around $100 million in tax evasion proceeds into a Panama shell company in 2014 - the existence of which was confirmed by the Open Corporates leak last April.

Both Pagni and La Nación have typically been supportive of the right-wing Macri administration.

Eavesdropping as policy

Pagni noted that the wiretapping of political figures, which already landed Macri an indictment in 2009 while mayor of Buenos Aires, has only intensified since he took office as president.

This practice recently made news when on January 23 a number of phone calls between Macri's main rival, former President Cristina Kirchner, and her close political adviser and friend Oscar Parrilli were leaked to right-wing media outlets supportive of Macri.

"These conversations circulate through the media without unleashing an institutional scandal," Pagni noted wryly. "And some self-appointed 'custodians of the Republic', such as Governor Juan Manuel Urtubey (a rival of Mrs. Kirchner's), comment on them as if they were official statements."

Kirchner is considering requesting the impeachment of Supreme Court Chief Justice Ricardo Lorenzetti over the case, given that in Argentina the Supreme Court must approve wiretaps and is responsible for curating them.

But the likely culprit behind the Kirchner-Parrilli leaks, Pagni believes, was Eduardo Miragaya, whom Macri appointed to the office that controls AFI files despite Miragaya's extensive record of falsifying records and other improprieties dating from the freewheeling Carlos Menem administration in the 1990s.

Pagni also revealed that among the private citizens under surveillance by the AFI is the famed, Argentine-born Barcelona football forward Lionel Messi.

"An agent whose name begins with G keeps Lionel Messi in his sights," Pagni wrote, noting that the agent's interest is mainly due to Messi's having opened an offshore account to evade taxes - which resulted in his brief arrest in Spain last July.

"Messi," Pagni nevertheless noted, "is an unexpected target."

The dismissal of the wiretapping case against Macri once he took office has meanwhile led to a criminal complaint against Angelici, in which he's alleged to have bribed the judge who issued the dismissal. The complaint, filed in November, remains open.

At: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.eldestapeweb.com%2Frevelan-que-la-agencia-inteligencia-espia-messi-y-persigue-opositores-n27321

[center]

Macri and Angelici. With friends like these...[/center]