The military coup that ousted President Hipolito Yrigoyen from power in September 1930 had profound implications for Argentine society and politics. After 1930, military power was consolidated and used in a more overt and violent fashion and political initiatives came to count on armed forces to provide with force what was lacking in majoritarian support. Repressive politics were institutionalized, enshrining armed forces as final arbiter of nation's political destiny (Halperin Donghi, 1961; White, 1991). The period of reaction that followed 1930 military coup has been dubbed the infamous (Rock, 1993: 173). Oligarchic dominance in political system went hand in hand with what many observers and social scientists characterized as a conspicuous dependence on Britain epitomized by Roca-Runciman pact of 1933 (Rock, 1987: 214-223; Pla, 1969: 105; Galasso, 1969).1 Curiously, analysts who reject indictment of this decade and view Argentina as successful in overcoming crisis of 1930s draw more attention to another aspect of this period: systematization of a surveillance machine. Fraga (1991) and Aguinaga and Azaretto (1991) convey respect rather than criticism when they point to extensive information service established after 1932 by President Agustin P. Justo to monitor military, political parties, and society.2 The military coup that deposed middle-class Union Civica Radical party government of Hipolito Yrigoyen and established General Jose Felix Uriburu as president was profoundly repressive, and censorship, tortures, and purges within army and police became rampant. But after a major setback in April 1931 elections, in which Radicals succeeded despite revolutionaries' aim of eradicating Yrigoyenism from politics, Uriburu had to withdraw from power. In