BUENOS AIRES: Amnesty International on Tuesday denounced the growing use of surveillance technologies by Argentine President Javier Milei’s government against his critics.
In a report entitled “Sensing the surveillance state,” Amnesty said the creation of databases of protesters, the monitoring of their social media and the use of facial recognition technology was stifling dissent.
Between December 2023, when Milei took office, and December 2025, the Argentine government “implemented a slew of security and intelligence reforms and expanded their use of surveillance technologies,” the report said.
“These measures constitute an intensification of state monitoring capacities… aimed at controlling and deterring protest and increasing authoritarian practices,” it added.
Milei’s drastic austerity measures have repeatedly sparked mass protests in Buenos Aires and other cities.
Amnesty said that the ministry of national security spent at least US$1.2 million to acquire surveillance technologies between 2024 and 2025.
In interviews with Amnesty, a group of journalists, activists, rights defenders and some of the retirees who demonstrate weekly for higher pensions and better healthcare access all said they felt they were being watched.
