Employees of the Industrial Technology National Institute (INTI) and the Agricultural Technology National Institute (INTA) are protesting a decree President Javier Milei is expected to issue on Monday, demoting and stripping them from their ability of managing their own budget and resources.

Staff from both institutes who are members of the State Workers Association union (ATE, by its Spanish), are protesting outside the INTI building and plan to block the Avenida General Paz, a key highway running across the city of Buenos Aires, on Monday morning. Images from C5N news showed police surrounding the building and attempting to disband the demonstration. 

While the decree has not been issued as of this writing, a preliminary text began circulating among reporters on Friday. The executive order would represent one of the final uses of the extraordinary legislative powers Congress granted to Milei in mid-2024 for a period of one year — a period that ends on Wednesday. Those powers include the ability to make changes to and even eliminate public institutions without Congressional approval.

The INTA and INTI are self-governing institutions that fall under the economy ministry. This means that they have legal personality, as well as autonomy over their own budget and resources, despite being part of the state structure.

The INTI is dedicated to determining the quality standards of certain products, such as milk or natural gas, and is the only institution in Argentina that can establish the measurements used for industrial production in the country. The INTA, dedicated to agricultural research and development, is the most indispensable in the sector.

In the preliminary version of the decree, which the Herald was able to preview, the government aims to transform the INTI into an “organizational unit” dependent on the industry secretariat and the INTA into a “deconcentrated organization” within the agriculture secretariat, giving it greater autonomy than the INTI.

“This is the final blow to national industry and production,” said ATE head Rodolfo Aguiar in a press release. ATE warned that if the decree is issued, the economy ministry will control the funds and management of both institutions, “leaving the door open to harsh cuts.”

According to Aguiar, disempowering INTI would deprive “the entire industrial ecosystem” of “a key ally” and mean “a loss of sovereignty with serious and immediate consequences.”

The ATE head added that the INTI will lose “all ability to manage resources and sign strategic agreements,” and that some of its work lines will be lost. “With this decree, several jobs are being threatened,” he said.

The preliminary version of the decree also eliminates institutes dedicated to indigenous and small-level agriculture and seed production, as well as another dedicated to regulating the hemp and medicinal cannabis industry, whose duties will be redistributed within the agriculture secretariat and the ANMAT regulating agency.

On Monday, the government issued a decree merging the state entities that regulate gas and electric energy into the National Entity of Gas and Electricity Regulation, which will carry out the duties of the two organizations. The new regulator will be operational within 180 days and fall under the purview of the economy ministry’s energy secretariat. The decision comes on the heels of a natural gas crisis that left thousands of homes without heating during a polar wave last week, and which the government claims has since been resolved.