Orden de archivo. Secreto e inteligencia militar en democracia

Abstract

Objective: to identify the processes and practices involved in the definition of objectives, the search and classification of information of a naval intelligence office, and to contribute to the study of intelligence systems in Argentina, based on the analysis of a naval intelligence file that covers the years 1985 to 2006) and that was confiscated as judicial evidence. Methodology: anthropological and ethnographic research that includes in its design the analysis of a judicial file, interviews of different actors involved in the process of setting up the case, historical sources, legislation, regulations of different hierarchies, and the detailed reconstruction of the intelligence file. Results: the analysis shows practices attributable to doctrinal frameworks corresponding to different time periods, sustained as strategies aimed at disputing areas of power and influence in the field of the State, and consolidating the sector's autonomy. The process of “policing” the sector and the relevance of the notion of “political policing” are discussed. Conclusions: the approach to the court case and the analysis of the intelligence file allowed problematizing the relationships and transmission of practices and knowledge within a Navy intelligence office beyond what is established in institutional legal guidelines. It opens the specific inquiry into the bureaucratic framework of the various intelligence agencies that make up the sector and the problem of their increasing automatization.