In April 2011, Argentina's Minister of Public Security issued a ruling to change the names of Federal Police training academies, eliminating the homage to police chiefs associated with police repression and renaming the schools for officers associated with human rights protection. Based on an analysis of various documents and media sources, the current article argues that words themselves can "create" and "sustain" social relations and situations, since they communicate identities and allow experimentation with reality. The current study thus aims to examine the symbolic implications of these reforms, unveiling their discursive and evaluative plots and discussing the weight and scope of the country's police reforms and attempts to adjust to the current political context. The conclusions include some uses and appropriations of history and memory.
Argentina; reforms; police; schools; names