Histórico_en

The beginning of the institutional memory preservation project that gave rise to Musint dates back to 1990, with the creation of the working group for the implementation of the Intelligence Memorial (Ordinance No. 31 of June 18, 1990), responsible for sorting, organizing, and conserving the documentary collection of the former National Intelligence School (EsNI), founded in 1971, within the structure of the former National Information Service (SNI).

As a result of this documentary research work, in 1994, the Intelligence Memorial, Memorin, was created with the express mission of “preserving for posterity documents of historical value related to intelligence activities in Brazil, with a view to offering researchers the possibility of reconstructing the facts from authentic sources.” The documentary research work continued for several years, with additions and reorganization of the historical corpus.

A few years after the creation of the Brazilian Intelligence Agency (ABIN) and the Brazilian Intelligence System (Sisbin), in 1999—when the project to restructure and modernize federal intelligence activities was already beginning to take shape—the need arose to rethink the exhibition of the Memorin collection, with the aim of opening its doors to civil society, and thereby increasing the transparency of intelligence activities. To this end, a new study was conducted by a company specializing in museology, in conjunction with an ABIN commission.

The new project, innovative and ambitious for its time, was not only about renovating a space, created in the 1990s, to house the collection and honor the institutional memory of the former SNI, but above all about developing a new narrative of institutional memory, more suited to a society undergoing rapid cultural transformation and increasingly demanding in terms of participation, transparency, and social control of its democratic institutions, that is, to transpose the memory of Intelligence “outside the fences” of the institution.

Information Memorial Plaque – 1991

Intelligence Memorial Plaque – 1998

Inauguration

Finally, on December 7, 2006, the current Intelligence Museum was created with the aim of “transcending institutional boundaries and opening up the possibility of more interactive engagement with the public.” Thus, a thematic museum was created.

Currently, the Intelligence Museum is undergoing a review of its exhibition narrative, as well as its technical museum processes.

Since then, the Intelligence Museum has expanded its collection (most of which is cataloged) and actively participated in institutional efforts, to promote and enhance ABIN's image among the public.