The conformation of the Southern Cone in transnational space of exile and anti-communist surveillance : a perspective from the analysis of diplomatic cables (1935- 1966)

Abstract

Individual life histories and literature are an important record of the experiences and feelings of persecution experienced by those who left Brazil after the installation of the military dictatorship that followed the 1964 coup, that sought refuge in the platinum region where Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay form the triple border . Migratory transit space, the diplomatic documentation reveals, as told by the literary records, that the region was constituted in political action space for those who sought to obtain logistical support and protection in neighboring countries, and also to state officers that continued to persecute political opponents of the current regimes across national borders. From the analysis of diplomatic cables this article will discuss the process by which the border region between the three countries was constituted into transnational space of exile and surveillance in relation to changes in the legal status of the exiled, which occurred at the same time, during the second half of the twentieth century. It is intended to highlight the emergence of a surveillance tradition from Itamaraty to the exiles that circulated through the region, and from there to propose the relativization of the of "bastion of resistance" that prevails in the memory about Brazilian diplomacy during authoritarian times.