by Revista Crisis and Equipo de Investigación Política (EdIPo). Originally published in Spanish in Revista Crisis.

The national government’s war on the population and the institutions that represent it has, so far, included increasingly violent repression of street protests, mass arrests leading to preposterous accusations of “terrorism” and attempted “coups d’état,” withholding food from soup kitchens, and slashing budgets, starving the most vulnerable.

But here, we will reconstruct a primordial far-right practice that has grown in scope since La Libertad Avanza (LLA) took the reins of government on December 10: digital attacks, either against opponents, or to resolve internal disputes within the now ruling party, which extend beyond the screen into physical persecution and assaults.

Previous violence by far-right organizations, such as the assassination attempt against Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (CFK), had connections with activists of the current ruling party. Now, the significant difference is that these have become para-state attacks that depend wholly on the state’s forces. In other words, since December, this violence has been on both sides of the counter.

We will look into how trolls attack in packs, the targets of this merciless violence, and the identity and political connections of the top members of one of the groups leading the persecution.

The art of doxing

The X account @Antiponzista had managed to establish a massive presence, including within radical right circles. When President Javier Milei took office, Antiponzista decided the only way to confront the new government was to hit it on its own turf: that is, online. He soon began publishing sensitive information. The turning point came in February, when, together with another user (@criminaalmambo), they made a freedom of information request. Their findings were explosive: the register of people who had entered the Casa Rosada presidential palace revealed that a group of far-right X users, known for their brutal aggression, were frequent visitors. 

“In a few days, several Twitter users are in for a mask-off moment. It wasn’t for freedom, it was for the money,” he warned from his account. It was the preface to a barrage of posts that hit the inner circle of the all-powerful presidential advisor Santiago Caputo.

The first revelation was Juan Pablo Carreira (@jdoedoe101101), who surprisingly appeared on the entry lists as Director of Digital Communication. His position had not been disclosed and was not officially announced until five months later.

Another figure to be exposed was geneticist Daniel Parisini, an X troll known as Gordo Dan (@gordodan_), who was revealed as a frequent visitor to Casa Rosada, and even as someone who authorized the entry of other radicalized X users.

Parisini responded immediately with what became a confession: “Was this the rubbish you had? I went to help Juan [Pablo Carreira] set up his team because on November 19 we won the elections. I also went as a guest to Congress on Friday to listen to my President’s speech because we won the elections, and your ass got burned. (…) Do you have the balls to show your face or will we have to dox you?”

According to the Argentine government’s website, doxing (from docs, short for documents) consists of “collecting and publishing personal information about someone or a group without their consent, with the aim of damaging their public and professional reputation.” Parisini knew what he was talking about: in June 2021, he posted the home addresses of a group of journalists who had exposed links between far-right groups and influencers. All received threats after the doxing.

But @Antiponzista and @criminaalmambo didn’t back down. They kept revealing how the state was absorbing a pack of Twitter users who until recently had spent their time attacking the political “caste,” as Milei describes politicians. Tomás Jurado (@ElPelucaMilei) and Lucas Luna (@sagazluna) were the next to be identified as new members of the Digital and Public Communication team, respectively. They also revealed a meeting between Caputo and his friend Juan Neuss, a member of a powerful family owning a business conglomerate mainly in the energy sector. Today, the Neuss family is moving forward with multiple business dealings in partnership with Caputo. @Antiponzista and @criminaalmambo also included the real names of users known for their obsessive pursuit of opponents.

The final straw was the publication of an affidavit signed by Parisini (Gordo Dan) confirming his work as a resident at the National Center for Medical Genetics of the Malbrán Institute between June 2019 and September 2023, a month after Milei’s victory in the primaries.

This set the libertarians on the warpath, and they deployed a well-oiled modus operandi. On March 13, a week after the posts against him, Gordo Dan published his name and surname, the name of the account (@Antiponzista), and added: “From now on, tweet with name, surname, and face.” The doxing was complemented with three close-up photos.

Days later, a Mercado Libre delivery person rang @Antiponzista’s doorbell and handed him one of the company’s typical yellow packaging bags. Inside was a plastic bowl with a transparent lid, containing dirt and worms. Hours later, he received a message warning him that if he continued, he too would end up in the dirt. The following day, a person was seen taking photos in front of his house. They then posted the images, names, addresses, car license plates, and bank debts of his entire family, whom they threatened.

Finally, on Facebook and Marketplace groups, they launched a method called swatting, which originated in U.S. online culture. It involves tricking the emergency services into sending an urgent response unit by making fake reports of a serious incident. The Argentine version includes posting fake ads (job offers, sales, donations of furniture or appliances) to lure people to the doorstep expecting to do a job or, in @Antiponzista’s case, to pick up a refrigerator and a stove he was supposedly giving away. When the unwitting participants showed up at the house with a truck, the trolls went a step further: they messaged them to tell them they were being recorded, as if it were a prank. Their ultimate goal was to make them take out their frustrations on @Antiponzista and his home.

Kiosk, blow and soda

When @Antiponzista realized the attacks weren’t going to stop, he decided to negotiate his surrender. Through an account linked to the radicalized libertarian users, he asked what he had to do to stop the hostilities. The response was a screenshot: “Get off Twitter.” The next line read: “Did people go to your house, by any chance? Haha.”

The user who sent these messages was @BarraniBad (formerly @barrani44 / @badbarrani). But before discussing him, let’s pause to examine the intellectual author: Alberto Muzzio (@soycarpintero11), a traumatologist at the Buenos Aires German Hospital and a fervent far-right adherent with proven connections to his colleague, the geneticist Gordo Dan. It was Dan who received Antiponzista’s information from Muzzio and started the doxing, which quickly went viral.

Our investigations reveal that the owner of @BarraniBad is Federico Javier Gorga. Based in Madrid, he leads a group of agitators of the national brand of ultra-libertarianism, independent from the government, called KFC (Kiosk, Blow, and Soda), a sinister anagram of CFK.

Until 2021, they shared spaces and activities with those who today are part of the LLA team, discussing “trivialities,” according to its founder, journalist Tabatha Barrera Carlini. Given users’ enthusiasm for the group, she and others believed KFC could develop influence. Barrera Carlini left in 2022 and has since been a fervent libertarian activist in a group called Club de la Libertad (Freedom Club). She often posts photos of meetings with the highest-ranking official Twitter users.

Under Gorga’s sole leadership, KFC became a group hunting users and online discussions (such as Twitter spaces) led by opponents, be they Peronists, Radicals, or leftists. While users speak, members of KFC post the speakers’ data in the comments with the intention of disrupting the discussions. The attacks have political motivations of their own, especially misogyny. However, they also act as manpower, as happened in the persecution of @Antiponzista.

They publish a blog with information and images of some of the people they target, and claim the assaults as trophies. They often make public everything from paid reports from personal data companies (mostly from infoexperto.com) to private sexual photos.

It’s worth examining the figures who serve as dark intermediaries between the state troop and these radicalized groups. In the case of KFC, this is done by a young PRO party member with strong connections to high-ranking national officials, nicknamed Croata (@itscroa). In a recent X space, Gorga pointed her out as someone who warned him: “I was just reading what Croata sent. She said someone important from the government had told her they were going to mess with us, the KFC.”

We identified a common sender in the cases of the Mercado Libre deliveries (with dirt and worms or an Israeli flag, as happened to the user @BadEmpanada) and other actions involving intermediaries, such as hanging threatening banners and hiring dumpsters to park outside victims’ homes. That sender is the Asociación Civil de los Consumidores por la Libertad (Civil Association of Consumers for Freedom). After months of unsuccessful tracing, we were able to identify its leaders through the General Inspectorate of Justice (IGJ): first on the list is Federico Javier Gorga. This formally confirms his responsibility for a multitude of attacks (not just against @Antiponzista). The other partners are Melinda Noemí Barberis (Gorga’s partner), Mirna Zulma Morillo Gómez, Nicolás Ezequiel Jaúregui Lorda, and Pablo Antonio Mazzitelli.

Federico Gorga describes himself as “a psychopath” who just wants to “bust and destroy people.” He studied Philosophy at the University of Buenos Aires, where he was a departmental board advisor in 2010. It was a brief period of leftist activism. According to his profiles on job platforms, he now works in ghostwriting and editing publications.

His declared activities with AFIP include editorial activities and business consulting, direction, and management. Since 2020, he has registered mysterious companies in Argentina and the United States with Barberis and Mazzitelli: ADS SEA LLC (Denver, USA); Editorial Redactar SRL; AWS GROUP LLC (Nevada, USA); Editorial KFC SRL; AWS GROUP SRL; Editorial Redactar SRL LLC (Nevada, USA); Editorial Sea LLC (Nevada, USA), in Mazzitelli’s name; Apertura KFC LLC (New Mexico, USA); Gorra and Co LLC (New Mexico, USA); Melinda Noemí Barberis LLC (Nevada, USA).

The Astrologer

Ayelén Romano is an astrologer and writer with 64,000 followers on Instagram and 140,000 on X (@_venusandmars). She often organizes spaces where anyone can participate. And that’s where they showed up. Sometimes one, sometimes two, sometimes three. They trolled, annoyed, and attacked. They were libertarians, but behaved like Nazis, Romano said. A feminist and Peronist, she got fed up and blocked them. That’s when KFC began to retaliate.

The group nicknamed her “the little piglet” and uploaded a credit report to their website. It included her address. They also leaked her phone number, a photo of the door of her house, and her bank account details.

The harassment went even further than with @Antiponzista. At the beginning of April, a very large man with a bouncer’s appearance showed up at her house. Her mother was sweeping the sidewalk. The man pinned her against the wall and threatened her: he said that if “her bitch of a daughter” didn’t shut up, he would “kill them all.” He gave the names of Romano’s father, brother, and nephew.

When the situation seemed to have calmed down, KFC sent people to her house again. This time, it was a swatting attack: they announced on Facebook Marketplace that a refrigerator was being given away at her address, which led to several people showing up. They also picked fights with people on social media, giving them her address and telling them, “Come find me here, coward.” One person ended up throwing stones at the door and the security cameras she installed after the first incident.

On April 8, they organized a space titled “Group Masturbation Listening to Aye [Romano]’s Voice.” They then sent her a video of a man masturbating while her voice was playing. We discovered that the phone number the video was sent from is registered in the name of Federico Javier Gorga.

At the beginning of May, they hung a banner on the corner of her house: “We Love Your Voice.” It bore KFC’s signature. The harassment didn’t stop there. Several of the group’s spaces were dedicated almost exclusively to her. For example, throughout May, they used artificial intelligence to create and spread fake photos of her naked on social media.

On May 13, KFC sent three trucks to unload construction materials at her house. The service was contracted through the Civil Association of Consumers for Freedom.

They even installed a statue of Gauchito Gil, a popular Argentine saint, at the entrance of her house, with the goal of “filling the doors with slum-dwellers,” as they said in an X space, but this particular plan did not work.

In their spaces, KFC members publicly endorse the use of weapons, Nazism, and animal abuse. Sex is a recurrent theme, and has also been a flank of attack against Ayelén, and in some online discussions, they planned to send her hundreds of “sex toys.”

Libertarian Genetics

Another target of the group was once again marked by Gordo Dan. Javier Smaldone (@mis2centavos), an expert in computer security, often posts about the links between the geneticist and KFC. He also publishes constant criticisms and information that provoke the wrath of government figures like Santiago Caputo, who wrote on X: “Smaldone must be the most moronic guy on Twitter Argentina”.

In early May, the group struck: they published his daughter’s address online, and there were numerous posts on Marketplace with her phone number and location, saying a refrigerator and a TV were being given away. The young woman received no fewer than a hundred messages, phone calls, and multiple visits to her home.

Days later, Croata (@itscroa), the intermediary between KFC and the government, tagged her accusing her father of being a “pedophile and stalker.” Immediately afterward, Gordo Dan ordered that it be made viral. On Father’s Day, they commented on a post with a screenshot of Smaldone’s credit report.

The next attack by KFC targeted Edgardo Alessio, who has had a motorcycle parts business in Lanús for 14 years. When he became known for criticizing the government in Twitter spaces, he found himself receiving attacks, particularly from the member @PorPeronia. They attacked his store with a method known as review bombing, which involves publishing a flood of negative reviews on Google. His business went from a five-star rating to one star. The reviews accused him of selling stolen cars, beating women, and being a pedophile. Alessio had to change the name of his business and remove it from Google. Besides the constant threats, they also posted his address and personal details, along with photos of his child.

This last incident caused the business owner to explode. Through a libertarian Twitter user, he obtained the name and address of one of his harassers and went to confront him. “I called from the front door. I told him, ‘I’m outside, delete everything because I’m kicking my way in.’ And he deleted everything,” he says with satisfaction. However, he admits that he receives messages of harassment every day.

Friendly Fire

Some coordinated attacks were not claimed by KFC, but replicate their methods, and have a direct connection with the same members of the national government.

Constanza Moragues led the libertarian invasion into the Buenos Aires Provincial Chamber of Deputies when, in 2022, she broke away from José Luis Espert’s bloc to form her own LLA bloc. She had a direct, unmediated relationship with Milei. In 2023, she was re-elected with 14 other legislators in the lower house. But by then, things had changed. The Buenos Aires party coordinator was Sebastián Pareja, who demanded allegiance from everyone. Moragues and eight others did not accept this leadership.

The infighting intensified. On November 2, two weeks after the elections, a user (@daniel.placido.3192) commented on a post by Moragues with a detailed account of what she had done that day: gone to the dentist, got a haircut, bought a T-shirt.

On December 5, the day the bloc officially announced its split, Gordo Dan posted the list of those who had jumped ship (including Moragues), accusing them of “selling out for MONEY” to Governor Axel Kicillof. He dedicated a special post to her: “You bet on the loser, Moragues. We made a guy president and the guy [Sergio Massa] who bought you is fleeing to the United States. Now remember one thing: the people who voted for you don’t forget. We’ll put you in jail as soon as you grab the first bribe offered to you. Regards.” She replied: “Who do you think you are to speak about me like that without knowing me?” Dan fired back: “The guy who made you a deputy, dumbass.”

“It doesn’t matter if all the traitors go with Massa,” tweeted her former bloc mate, the newly-elected deputy Agustín Romo, another key figure among the digital attack dogs that answer to Santiago Caputo. They then accused the dissenters of voting in favor of the debt requested by Kicillof, something that never happened.

While this discussion was unfolding, another user (@ExponiendoVagos) responded to Gordo Dan’s post with Moragues’s address. “We already have your home address, you won’t sleep tonight,” they threatened. The deputy’s official phone began receiving videos of torture, death threats, and insults. In her testimony to the judiciary, she revealed that they were following her mother and ringing her doorbell to insult her.

But that wasn’t all. Days later, they broke into her house. When she returned, she found chaos and a disturbing detail: a jar of jam that had been in the fridge was left on the countertop. She threw away all her food as a precaution.

Today, on the recommendation of the prosecutor’s office, Moragues and her mother have protection. In an interview with Radio 10, she stated: “I know it, we all know it. I have screenshots and had to include them in the complaint against users belonging to LLA. I don’t have evidence that Milei endorses this, but I don’t know if he’s asking for it to stop, either.”

The Gangs of Heaven

The government house’s Hall of the Founding Fathers has all the characteristics of an urban legend, even for those who frequent the Casa Rosada. Its windows are covered with newspapers, and security does not allow accredited journalists to enter. One reporter who dared to film the room’s exterior had his accreditation revoked. Gordo Dan, who denies holding a formal position but has no other known employment, and Juan Pablo Carreira, the aforementioned National Director of Digital Communication, enter and exit their boss Santiago Caputo’s office, responsible for the ruling party’s narrative and much more.

Since the beginning of the libertarian administration, Caputo has freely traversed the halls of Casa Rosada. He is one of the closest people to Milei within the administration. But the departure of Chief of Staff Nicolás Posse, who guarded his power jealousy, finally allowed him to monitor every government move. His main entry, with his own people, was at the Federal Intelligence Agency (AFI, by its Spanish initials, which has since reverted to its previous name, SIDE). After the dismissal of Silvestre Sívori, a Posse man, Sergio Neiffert, a radio and TV producer close to Caputo, was named as the head of the intelligence agency. Besides handling sensitive information, Caputo began managing the opaque funds reserved for spies. This lucrative black box could be the source of funding for such far-right parastate networks.

The connection between groups like KFC and the Hall of the Founding Fathers was demonstrated in the case of @Antiponzista. The harassment against him began with the early revelation of its main members (Parisini, Carreira, Jurado, Luna) and other unconnected members who report to the presidential advisor.

However, a prominent communication strategist for LLA, an expert in digital networks, denies any connection with KFC: “They are actually the party’s rejects. People [who were] too insane, who had no place.” But he confirms the starting point: in 2021, those supposed lunatics were part of the same ultra-libertarian Twitter world, which expanded its reach like ivy. “It was all the same before. Then they made KFC and we kicked them out.”

Three years later, the stages of the far-right swarm are clear. The first group joined the construction of a party tool in 2021, when Milei and Victoria Villarruel first became deputies. In a second stage, the ranks swelled with the public rise of their top leader, becoming a key piece during the electoral campaign, fought largely in the digital realm, that led to the stunning upset of Milei’s election. In the third phase, Caputo started to build the ruling party’s digital army, this time with state resources that include the intelligence services.

However, radicalized groups like KFC are outside the organizational charts because the ruling party considers them “a circus of schizophrenics” (sic) and because their members refuse to become a figure they harass and despise: civil servants. Yet, they operate as foot soldiers or guns for hire and as a fierce autonomous pack willing to destroy targets in the digital war. Before KFC arrived on the scene, there were other extreme right groups such as the Cotton Candy Gang and Revolución Federal. The option of just dismissing groups like these as loose cannons became implausible when a supposedly marginal group like the Cotton Candy Gang, through a complex web, almost assassinated CFK.

The need for an urgent response from a passive judiciary is evident for dealing with parastate attacks. But it also requires refining our investigative capabilities as part of an essential repertoire of self-defense strategies against this war’s mole hunt.