National Intelligence Service of Brazil
Encyclopedia
The Serviço Nacional de Informações, or SNI (National Information Service) of Brazil
was an intelligence agency
formed by the Castelo Branco
government
in 1964. SNI was disbanded for a time and later resumed operations under the name Agência Brasileira de Inteligência.
agency under the retired General Golbery do Couto e Silva
. It provided Castelo Branco
with an alternative intelligence
source.
After the political dominance of Brazilian hard-liners, the SNI came under military control. The agency was the backbone of the regime's anti-communist actions. Although there have been secret police in Brazil since at least the Vargas era, military involvement reached new heights with the creation of the SNI. It grew out of the Institute for Research and Social Studies (Instituto de Pesquisas e Estudos Sociais or IPES), which Couto e Silva had established to undermine the former Goulart
government (1961-64).
In 1973, control over the domestic intelligence community with the opening of the Escola Nacional de Informações (EsNI or National Intelligence School) was established. The following year, the EsNI absorbed the Escola Superior de Guerra postgraduate intelligence course.
Supposedly, the EsNI did not train police agents and selected its own students. By 1980 some officers were saying that the EsNI would be as useful as the ESG to their careers.
The three service agencies were:
The branch chiefs of staff were technically responsible for the intelligence work in their designated service. But in fact, CIE activities followed a parallel chain of command, and so the officers were often left uninformed.
Each command also had an Internal Operations Department-Internal Defense Operations Center (Departamento de Operações Internas-Centro de Operações de Defesa Interna—known as DOI-CODI
).
Castelo Branco
rejected the idea of creating an army intelligence service, because it would weaken the General Staff
. The next year, 1967, the new minister of the army, General Aurélio de Lyra Tavares, established the CIE over the objections of the chief of staff, General Orlando Geisel.
As early as 1968, the CIE began bomb
ing theaters, destroying bookstores, and kidnapping
people. When insurgent
s began terrorist violence
in late 1968, the CIE expanded to about 200 officers and began a counter-offensive, eliminating all signs of leftist violence in three years.
President Geisel
, a retired general
, struggled to have his orders fulfilled by the CIE system. Consequently, the CIE sought to undermine his government and to make Army Minister Sylvio Couto Coelho da Frota the next president. The CIE also waged a pamphlet
war against the previously mentioned Couto e Silva, chief of Geisel's Civilian Household, who wanted to shut down the CIE.
in the army archives. Using an elaborate system of informant
s and telephone taps, the SNI accumulated and analyzed reports on many sources.
One study by political scientist David V. Fleischer and Robert Wesson suggests that there were as many as 50,000 persons employed in the SNI during the 1964-85 regime
. Furthermore, both Presidents Médici
and Figueiredo
had been SNI chiefs.
, a professor
of political science
at Columbia University
, observed that the SNI differed from similar agencies in other countries. In retrospect, he noted that it had quite a monopoly
in operations and training, with a voice as a ministry in the presidential cabinet and representation in almost every facet of public life. High-ranking officials helped achieve SNI security
goals through their government positions. Moreover, the SNI was completely autonomous, giving it an unprecedented power.
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
was an intelligence agency
Intelligence agency
An intelligence agency is a governmental agency that is devoted to information gathering for purposes of national security and defence. Means of information gathering may include espionage, communication interception, cryptanalysis, cooperation with other institutions, and evaluation of public...
formed by the Castelo Branco
Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco
Marshal Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco was a Brazilian military leader and politician.He was President of Brazil, as a military dictator, after the 1964 coup d'etat...
government
Government
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...
in 1964. SNI was disbanded for a time and later resumed operations under the name Agência Brasileira de Inteligência.
History
Originally, the SNI was a civilianCivilian
A civilian under international humanitarian law is a person who is not a member of his or her country's armed forces or other militia. Civilians are distinct from combatants. They are afforded a degree of legal protection from the effects of war and military occupation...
agency under the retired General Golbery do Couto e Silva
Golbery do Couto e Silva
Golbery do Couto e Silva was a Brazilian General of the Army, who developed the Brazilian National Security Doctrine....
. It provided Castelo Branco
Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco
Marshal Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco was a Brazilian military leader and politician.He was President of Brazil, as a military dictator, after the 1964 coup d'etat...
with an alternative intelligence
Intelligence (information gathering)
Intelligence assessment is the development of forecasts of behaviour or recommended courses of action to the leadership of an organization, based on a wide range of available information sources both overt and covert. Assessments are developed in response to requirements declared by the leadership...
source.
After the political dominance of Brazilian hard-liners, the SNI came under military control. The agency was the backbone of the regime's anti-communist actions. Although there have been secret police in Brazil since at least the Vargas era, military involvement reached new heights with the creation of the SNI. It grew out of the Institute for Research and Social Studies (Instituto de Pesquisas e Estudos Sociais or IPES), which Couto e Silva had established to undermine the former Goulart
João Goulart
João Belchior Marques Goulart was a Brazilian politician and the 24th President of Brazil until a military coup d'état deposed him on April 1, 1964. He is considered to have been the last left-wing President of the country until Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office in 2003.-Name:João Goulart is...
government (1961-64).
In 1973, control over the domestic intelligence community with the opening of the Escola Nacional de Informações (EsNI or National Intelligence School) was established. The following year, the EsNI absorbed the Escola Superior de Guerra postgraduate intelligence course.
Supposedly, the EsNI did not train police agents and selected its own students. By 1980 some officers were saying that the EsNI would be as useful as the ESG to their careers.
Structure
In theory, the SNI supervised and coordinated the intelligence agencies of the three services, but in practice the service agencies maintained their autonomy.The three service agencies were:
- The ArmyArmyAn army An army An army (from Latin arma "arms, weapons" via Old French armée, "armed" (feminine), in the broadest sense, is the land-based military of a nation or state. It may also include other branches of the military such as the air force via means of aviation corps...
Information Center (Centro de Informações do Exército, or CIE) - The Air forceAir forceAn air force, also known in some countries as an air army, is in the broadest sense, the national military organization that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army, navy or...
Information Center (Centro de Informações da Aeronáutica, or CISA) - The NavalNavyA navy is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake- or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions...
Information Center (Centro de Informações de Marinha, or Cenimar).
The branch chiefs of staff were technically responsible for the intelligence work in their designated service. But in fact, CIE activities followed a parallel chain of command, and so the officers were often left uninformed.
Each command also had an Internal Operations Department-Internal Defense Operations Center (Departamento de Operações Internas-Centro de Operações de Defesa Interna—known as DOI-CODI
DOI-CODI
The Destacamento de Operações de Informações - Centro de Operações de Defesa Interna was the Brazilian intelligence and repression agency during the military government . This period started on March 31, 1964 with the removal of the civilian government by military forces and ended in the 1984....
).
CIE
From the outset, there was resistance to the idea of the CIE. In 1966 PresidentPresident
A president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...
Castelo Branco
Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco
Marshal Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco was a Brazilian military leader and politician.He was President of Brazil, as a military dictator, after the 1964 coup d'etat...
rejected the idea of creating an army intelligence service, because it would weaken the General Staff
General Staff
A military staff, often referred to as General Staff, Army Staff, Navy Staff or Air Staff within the individual services, is a group of officers and enlisted personnel that provides a bi-directional flow of information between a commanding officer and subordinate military units...
. The next year, 1967, the new minister of the army, General Aurélio de Lyra Tavares, established the CIE over the objections of the chief of staff, General Orlando Geisel.
As early as 1968, the CIE began bomb
Bomb
A bomb is any of a range of explosive weapons that only rely on the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy...
ing theaters, destroying bookstores, and kidnapping
Kidnapping
In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority...
people. When insurgent
Insurgency
An insurgency is an armed rebellion against a constituted authority when those taking part in the rebellion are not recognized as belligerents...
s began terrorist violence
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
in late 1968, the CIE expanded to about 200 officers and began a counter-offensive, eliminating all signs of leftist violence in three years.
President Geisel
Ernesto Geisel
Ernesto Beckmann Geisel, was a Brazilian military leader and politician of German descent who was President of Brazil from 1974 to 1979.-Early life and family:...
, a retired general
General
A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....
, struggled to have his orders fulfilled by the CIE system. Consequently, the CIE sought to undermine his government and to make Army Minister Sylvio Couto Coelho da Frota the next president. The CIE also waged a pamphlet
Pamphlet
A pamphlet is an unbound booklet . It may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths , or it may consist of a few pages that are folded in half and saddle stapled at the crease to make a simple book...
war against the previously mentioned Couto e Silva, chief of Geisel's Civilian Household, who wanted to shut down the CIE.
Methods of surveillance
The SNI provided clearance for anyone seeking a government job or requesting to conduct researchResearch
Research can be defined as the scientific search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories, usually using a scientific method...
in the army archives. Using an elaborate system of informant
Informant
An informant is a person who provides privileged information about a person or organization to an agency. The term is usually used within the law enforcement world, where they are officially known as confidential or criminal informants , and can often refer pejoratively to the supply of information...
s and telephone taps, the SNI accumulated and analyzed reports on many sources.
One study by political scientist David V. Fleischer and Robert Wesson suggests that there were as many as 50,000 persons employed in the SNI during the 1964-85 regime
History of Brazil (1964-1985)
The Brazilian military government was the authoritarian regime which ruled Brazil from March 31, 1964 to March 15, 1985. It began with the 1964 coup d'état led by the Armed Forces against the democratically elected government of left-wing President João Goulart and ended when José Sarney took...
. Furthermore, both Presidents Médici
Emílio Garrastazu Médici
Emílio Garrastazu Médici, was a Brazilian military leader and politician. His rightist rule from 1969 to 1974, marked the apex of military governments in Brazil.-Early life:...
and Figueiredo
João Baptista de Oliveira Figueiredo
João Baptista de Oliveira Figueiredo was a Brazilian military leader and politician. He was chief of the Secret Service during the term of his predecessor Ernesto Geisel. Figueiredo was chosen to be president of Brazil by the former military leader, General Ernesto Geisel. He took the oath of...
had been SNI chiefs.
Notable differences
Alfred StepanAlfred Stepan
Alfred C. Stepan is a comparative political scientist and Wallace S. Sayre Professor of Government at Columbia University, where he is also director of the Center for the Study of Democracy, Toleration and Religion....
, a professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
of political science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, observed that the SNI differed from similar agencies in other countries. In retrospect, he noted that it had quite a monopoly
Monopoly
A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...
in operations and training, with a voice as a ministry in the presidential cabinet and representation in almost every facet of public life. High-ranking officials helped achieve SNI security
Security
Security is the degree of protection against danger, damage, loss, and crime. Security as a form of protection are structures and processes that provide or improve security as a condition. The Institute for Security and Open Methodologies in the OSSTMM 3 defines security as "a form of protection...
goals through their government positions. Moreover, the SNI was completely autonomous, giving it an unprecedented power.