Deputy Facundo Manes filed a criminal complaint against presidential advisor Santiago Caputo for “coercive threats.” In the report, which was sent to the federal judiciary on Tuesday night, Manes accused Caputo of “intimidating” him in a spat between the two following President Javier Milei’s opening speech before Congress on Saturday. 

The tense exchange between Manes and Caputo originated after the former seemed to try and interrupt Milei while he was giving his speech to kick off the legislative year. Footage and pictures of the session showed the lawmaker holding up a National Constitution to the president to question him.

“[During the speech], I started hearing yelling coming from a balcony,” Manes said in his complaint, adding that it was coming from Caputo and his companions. “[Caputo] made an intimidating gesture towards me,” he said, describing a hand-motion commonly used to say “I’m watching you.” 

According to the complaint, Caputo was yelling at him. “You can’t hear me? You’ll hear me now!” he screamed. The document goes on to say that Deputy Pablo Juliano said he also heard Caputo issue threats. “I’m gonna f*ck you up,” the presidential advisor allegedly said, although the complaint notes that Manes didn’t hear this.

Manes left the Lower House floor once the speech was over and was giving an interview when Caputo suddenly approached him. This can be seen in videos taken by people who were standing near by.

“Mr. Caputo came up very close to my face, in a very intimidating manner. He lifted his right hand and placed it on my face, in another clear and evidently hostile action,” Manes said. He also described what Caputo said to his ear. “You have to have a very clean record to do what you did,” were the presidential advisor’s alleged words, who finished the interaction with another threat: “You don’t know me, you’ll get to know me.”

Manes added that, before leaving, Caputo “patted” him “twice on the chest, hard.” He also accused one of Caputo’s companions of “lunging” at him and hitting him with his chest. He said that this person “may have been” libertarian influencer Franco Antunes, better known as Fran Fijap, who was seen standing next to him and covering the camera of a journalist who was filming the scene.

Manes said that at that moment he also felt “two punches in the kidney area” but he was not able to see who did this.

“There’s no doubt for us that this constitutes the crime of coercive threats,” the presentation said, because “he intended to make the affected person stop carrying out his functions as national deputy” and to stop criticizing Milei, as well as “putting other lawmakers in line.”

The presentation also pointed out that Caputo “is not only President Milei’s main advisor, but also meddles in many state activities and entities, even though he has no fixed tasks.”