The Information and Counter-information National System archives and the role of manuals in the retrieval of sensitive information

Abstract

The Information and Counter-Information National System (SISNI) Archives was created to give support to the exception regime that prevailed in Brazil from 1964 to 1985, incorporating some previously existing files and creating a complex institutional structure supported by espionage actions, political police, repression and propaganda. The extraordinary volume of documents produced by the parts making up this System in the period reflects intensive surveillance practices. This article aims to analyze strategies for the production and organization of documents aiming at the effective retrieval of secret information in the archives of the National Information Service (SNI) and the Special Security and Information Advisory (AESI), later called Security and Information Advisory (ASI) of the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), linked to the Ministry of Education and Culture (MEC). It was mainly aimed at making decisions with a view to immediate repression against those considered enemies of the regime. In addition to the content analysis of the respective manuals produced with a view to facilitate the identification of names, organizations, political parties, among others, it will be necessary to recontextualize the production conditions of the gears of this sensitive files factory. The relationship between archive, memory and history will be addressed in order to highlight the materiality of the documentary field in the mediation of information actions.      

Keywords: SISNI; SNI; MEC/DSI/ASI/UFMG; sensitive archives; information retrieval; file description manuals.