Beneath the surface of scientific innovation, the national government this morning tested a highly complex political distraction maneuver. The general secretary of the Presidency, Karina Mileitoured the facilities of the ANLIS Malbran with an objective that exceeded protocol: to ratify absolute support for his “soul brother” and chief of staff, Manuel Adorni.
The chosen setting was the brand new Biological Containment Center Operational Unit, the first Biosafety Level 4 (BSL-4) laboratory in Latin America, a jewel of public health that paradoxically flourishes in a context of budgetary asphyxiation.
The delegation, which included the Minister of Health, Mario Lugoneswas fascinated by the maximum security laboratory that positions Argentina as a regional leader in the prevention of emerging diseases. However, the airtightness of the test tubes failed to hide the outside noise. Adorni’s presence in the official photo is read as a “shield operation” against the progress of the case for alleged illicit enrichment that is being processed in federal justice, after learning of the purchase of properties and his recurring flights abroad.
Contradiction was the mark of the day. While officials celebrated the strategic alliance with the US Department of State and the strengthening of “health security”, Minister Lugones landed in Malbrán carrying the heavy burden of the conflict due to non-payment of PAMI benefits. In the most advanced virus containment center in the region, the Executive sought to inoculate itself against the image crisis and social discontent, using the prestige of the scientific system as a shield for a management surrounded by complaints and suspicion.
Workers’ request
Since Sunday night it was circulating that there would be a ‘escrache’ before the visit of Adorni and company to Malbrán. The Government made sure to avoid this with a mega operation that surrounded the building, and there was no access to the press during the tour. However, workers gathered in ATE managed to deliver a petition to the authorities, to make their claim against the defunding and poor working conditions.
📢ATE prepares escraches in Malbrán today before Adorni’s visit: “They are all dirty and now they want to wash their faces”
🗣️“The members of the cabinet are unwelcome people throughout the national public administration,” said Rodolfo Aguiar.https://t.co/WtN3bcLnPZ
— ATE National Press (@ateprensa) April 13, 2026
“It was a face washing tour“, described Flavio Vergara, from ATE. “There was a very intense police operation, they cut off the street behind the institute, with fences, motorcycles, inside there were dogs and police officers. “An intense cordon,” he described. In any case, they approached the authorities of the portfolio led by Lugones to deliver a request. against the loss of purchasing power (around 45%), against the 25% budget reduction and against the loss of jobs.
“There was already more than 150 workers lostmost due to resignations. The reduction in salaries is a form of dismissal – Vergara lamented – It impacts more on the professional sector: today someone who starts starts at 1,200,000. Five or six years of career for that. And a technician starts at 900,000. It is unsustainable”.
“Meanwhile, the apparatus for controlling and guaranteeing the health of the population is deteriorating,” he warned in dialogue with Time. And he questioned that the inauguration of the laboratory had already been carried out before by this same management, “although it was done with the budget of the previous management. While we have two super important stopped works.” He said this in reference to the laboratory that produces anti-serums for diagnosing childhood diarrheal diseases and that produces a medication prepared for the treatment of bladder cancer. “They are in old buildings instead of planned and stopped buildings,” he said.
The visit to Malbrán occurred shortly after the announcement of closures and “mergers” of areas dependent on the Institute. Among them, from the live vinchuca production center for research and control, in Punilla, Córdoba. The three workers who fed and maintained the insects were displaced, so more than 40 thousand vinchucas were left adrift.
