National Intelligence Service of Brazil

The Serviço Nacional de Informações or SNI was the intelligence agency of Brazil during its military dictatorship. It was created by President Castelo Branco via Law 4371/64 and remained active until dissolved by Fernando Collor in 1990. Intelligence activities in Brazil were then subordinate to the Brazilian Federal Police until Fernando Henrique Cardoso sanctioned Law 9883/97, which created the Brazilian Intelligence Agency. History Originally, the SNI was a civilian agency under the retired General Golbery do Couto e Silva in 1964. It provided Castelo Branco with an alternative intelligence source and was initially trained by the PIDE of the Salazar regime. After the political dominance of Brazilian hard-liners in 1967, the SNI came under military control and began to be trained by the CIA. 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.