Police and Prison Records in Santa Fe

Social Control and Political Repression During the 20th Century

Abstract

This article focuses on the analysis of the "archives of repression" in Argentina, understood as documents produced by state agencies –such as police, prison, and intelligence forces–for the purposes of surveillance, political persecution and social discipline during the 20th century. It examines how the state's identification practices –that is, the bureaucratic procedures developed for criminal control– were transformed into tools of stigmatization and ideological repression, based on a series of police and prison documents from the province of Santa Fe. The study centers on the Investigations Division of the Rosario Police, which systematically compiled police records (prontuarios) starting in 1905. These documents, initially designed to identify criminals, were used to register political activists deemed “dangerous”. During the last military dictatorship (1976–1983), some records included photographs taken in clandestine detention centers such as the Rosario Information Service, highlighting the connection between state bureaucracy and illegal repression. Through the cases of Guillermo Kehoe and Juan Bernardo Iturraspe, the article shows that political persecution preceded the 1976 coup. It also analyzes prison records preserved in the Provincial Memory Archive, which reflect the logic of the prison system. Together, these archives reveal how identification technologies became key instruments in the construction and identification of the “internal enemy”.