Can “national interests” or “state security” justify keeping certain documents secret indefinitely?
These are the reasons invoked in Brazil to keep under wrap the records pertaining to the 1865-1870 War of the Triple Alliance, in which the population of the neighbouring country of Paraguay was decimated. Controversy over historical documents that have possibly been kept hidden from the public was triggered by the recent intensification of demands that the archives from Brazil’s 1964-1985 military dictatorship be opened up. Activists are calling for the de facto regime’s records to be made available, in order to clarify the fate of victims of forced disappearance. The Brazilian press has quoted government sources who, speaking on condition of anonymity, defend the need to keep certain documents, like some of those that date back to the War of the Triple Alliance in Paraguay, secret indefinitely, because they involve border questions and acts of cruelty committed by Brazilian forces. In that war, triggered by boundary conflicts and economic and commercial disputes, the allied forces of
