“They Must Be Lefties”: Buenos Aires Police Archives And Espionage On Indians In 1992

Abstract

In Argentina, from the second half of the twentieth century, indigenous political activism organizations began to form, contradicting the stereotypes of passivity and conformity created and disseminated by the state/national ideology. These organizations went through dictatorships and democratic periods and were systematically observed, controlled, and eventually repressed by the national or provincial state apparatus. Their leaders were criminalized and, even today, they are subject to permanent suspicion. The focus of this work is the documentary fund of the Directorate of Intelligence of the Police of the Province of Buenos Aires (DIPPBA), in particular the records produced by the follow-up and intelligence actions regarding the celebrations and counter-celebrations motivated by the V Centenary of the Conquest of America at a date as late as 1992. These are files that gather information about different intelligence actions deployed in the province of Buenos Aires tothe arrival of Columbus in America. In turn, it will be developed how DIPPBA saw in these processes the gestation of opposition or revolutionary fronts with international support capable of unleashing terrorist attacks. spy, especially on those who showed a critical stance regarding