This article has the purpose of presenting the figure of the informer, with special enphasis on the ones who spontaneously collaborated with the political police during the military dictatorship in Brazil. The source of information used for the elaboration of this text was the archives kept by the DOPS (Social and Political Order Department), one of the agencies in charge of the repression strategies during the military ruling (1964-83). This analysis attempts to prove how relevant these informers' actions were in the collection of both private and public information on the individuals regarded as probable subversives. In order to make sure the gathering of all this information would be successful, the Brazilian Government assured these collaborators an invisible but limited power, that was controlled by various official agencies.
repression; dictatorship; politics