Bureaucratic plot and secret documents. 'Legal' devices for the repression of workers in the public administration of Córdoba (1974-1978)

Abstract

This work continues the investigation of bureaucratic practices aimed at disciplining and repressing the workers of the Córdoba public administration in the period between the police coup, known as “Navarrazo”, which removed the governor and deputy governor (February 28, 1974 ) and the first three years of the dictatorship established by the National Reorganization Process (PRN, March 24, 1976). During this period, various provisions were applied, such as the expendable law and the Public Employee Statute (1974) that later overlapped with “de facto laws” passed during the PRN, such as 5911 and 5913 (1976, down for reasons of security and expendability, respectively) with the purpose of "purifying" the public administration. The arbitrariness of the measures made use of profuse regulations and routine, bureaucratic and legalistic practices, which coexisted with illegal repression and State terrorism, which is reflected in the significant number of missing and murdered workers. Within this framework, we will focus on two aspects related to said practices: layoffs and resignations of personnel, which grew exponentially between 1976 and 1978. At the same time, we will provide new evidence on the close coordination between de facto authorities, their bureaucratic-administrative procedures and the intelligence services for the ideological persecution and repression of public employees. For this we resort, among others, to “secret documents” kept in the Government Archive of the Province of Córdoba).