The Agencia Nacional de Inteligencia is the Chilean government national intelligence agency. Created in 2004, its mission is to coordinate, and advise the President on, intelligence. It is attached administratively to the Ministry of the Interior. Its current director is Gonzalo Yuseff Quiroz. The previous director was Gustavo Villalobos, who was also the last director of Directorate of Public Security and Information. ANI's budget is approximately $4 million USD.
Background
The history of the Chilean intelligence services originates in the early nineteenth century, when a Military Secret Service was created to conduct special operations. Its most notable work was during the War of the Pacific, when it carried out several successful missions. These were recreated in a very popular military novel in Chile, Adiós al Séptimo de Línea, by Jorge Inostroza Cuevas. The services were restructured when the Chilean Army was professionalised with the support of the Prussian army, creating the Dirección de Inteligencia del Ejército, or DINE. In parallel, the Navy and the Air Force created their own services. During the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional, or DINA, was also created, directed especially to combat the leftist parties and movements. Its first director was Colonel Manuel Contreras. This institution was dissolved in 1977 to create its replacement, the Central Nacional de Informaciones, which performed the same tasks as the DINA. The CNI was dissolved in 1990.
Organization and Duties
The ANI was established by Law No. 19974 of 2004, establishing roles, rules, and the secrecy with which it operates. Its highest authority is the director, responsible for the exclusive trust of the president. The agency, according to 2006 regulations, has a staff of approximately 125 people. It is the legal continuation of the Directorate of Public Security and Information and the Intelligence Directorate of the Defense Staff of National Defense, the Intelligence Directorate of the Armed Forces and the intelligence directorates or Headquarters of the Forces of Order and Public Security, or the Carabineros and the Investigations Police of Chile. Its main task is to carry out work on political intelligence, as part of the intelligence system of the State of Chile, and complementing the work of the Military Intelligence Directorate of the Armed Forces of Chile and the police intelligence units of both the Carabineros de Chile and the Investigations Police of Chile.
Espionage is not part of duties
According to the Chilean Government, the ANI does not engage in espionage.
