Gustavo Arribas wants to go to the World Cup in Qatar this year. And Silvia Majdalani would like to enjoy more the apartment she bought in Miami after leaving public office. But those plans for now are just wishes, because in the last week another chapter in a cold war that has been taking place between the former head of the AFI and his subordinates, and that for the moment would make it impossible for Arribas and Majdalani to travel .
Since the possibility began to be considered that the causes of macrista espionage end up being reduced to a matter of self-employed agents, the spies rebelled against Arribas and Majdalani. The latest example of this trend was on March 31, when the former director of Counterintelligence Diego Dalmau Pereyra testified in the case known as the “Gestapo PRO” and blamed Arribas and Majdalani for that operation in which a meeting with officials was filmed. provincials and businessmen at the Buenos Aires headquarters of Banco Provincia.
These types of remarks are becoming widespread. Dalmau Pereyra is joined by the statements that had already been made in the Bicameral Intelligence Commission by Martín Coste, also former head of Counterintelligence, agent Jimena Honor, and some former participants in the “Mario Bros” spy gang that followed politicians , social leaders, relatives of Mauricio Macri and journalists. The rebellion of the spies promises to stretch the judicial pilgrimage of Arribas and Majdalani.
Gestapo. Dalmau Pereyra affirmed that all the actions he had carried out were legal and within his powers as director of Counterintelligence, and that all the tasks he carried out were reviewed by the Legal Affairs sector headed by Sebastián De Stefano, Daniel’s man ” el Tano” Angelici within the AFI.
Dalmau Pereyra also mentioned the Director of Financial Economic Crimes, Fernando Di Pasquale, and the Director of Electronic Operations, Alberto Oliva. He said that all of them were aware of the operation at Banco Provincia and that the installation of the cameras was in charge of “Electronic Operations”. How did you get Arribas and Majdalani involved? In his statement, the former agent stated that Majdalani summoned him to inform him that the order for the operation had been given by Arribas and that he would go to the meeting with Sebastián De Stefano and Darío Biorci, who at that time was Majdalani’s chief of staff. .
Dalmau Pereyra said that he did not comment during the meeting and that when the operation was over he handed everything over to Majdalani.
In his defense, the former head of Counterintelligence spoke of another file: the cause of the “Mario Bros” gang. On this point, he affirmed that he had not set up any group named in that way, but he did admit having made two agents enter the AFI who later formed part of that team: one was Jorge Sáez, who came from the Federal Penitentiary Service, and another Leandro Araque, who worked for the Police of the City of Buenos Aires.
Dalmau Pereyra’s statement is not the first by an AFI agent against Arribas and Majdalani. In the past, former agent Martín Coste, who had testified before the Bicameral Intelligence Commission, had already blamed Majdalani for operations that they intended to attribute to him. The most famous was the case of espionage at Instituto Patria, where Cristina Kirchner’s office worked. One of Coste’s arguments is that when the operation took place he was on vacation. He even on more than one occasion would have intended to speak with Arribas, but Majdalani would not allow it.
Another agent who also gave details about the handling of Arribas and Majdalani in the AFI was Jimena Honor, who worked in the Counterintelligence area. This agent testified in the Bicameral Intelligence Commission about the existence of a “Cabinet B”, which worked in Majdalani’s orbit and was under the orders of an agent named Teo, who would be Alfredo Tedesco, who is now retired. That “Cabinet B”, according to the declaration of Honor, would have been in charge of wiretapping and transcribing them, and even in some cases it worked in duplicate with the Legal area. In this way, there was greater control over the information circulating through the Agency.
The war between the former heads of the AFI and the spies would have a common origin. Before the end of the administration, many directors involved would have been offered to pay their lawyers in case they needed legal advice, but that did not happen and they even tried to leave them solely responsible. Today the spies are on a war footing and spending money from their savings to pay for the lawyers, so the fight with Arribas and Majdalani would have become personal.
The judicial course of Arribas and Majdalani became a stumbling block for the personal life of the two former heads of the AFI. At the end of last year, Arribas became a grandfather and cannot go as often as he would like to visit his grandson in Uruguay. The few outings he can do are to the south of Argentina, where he has a cabin in Chapelco. In February he was in the country Cumelén, in Villa La Angostura, for Mauricio Macri’s birthday. An intimate celebration was held in the cabin built by the former president in that tourist village. In addition to Arribas, there were actor Martín Seefeld and former finance minister Luis “Toto” Caputo.
With the declaration of Dalmau Pereyra, who had been silent on the radio, a new chapter opens in the causes of PRO espionage: the self-employment theory has collapsed.
