This article identifies some of the main features of intelligence sector reform in Latin America within the broader context of the relationships between states and other security actors. Three main questions are considered: the authoritarian legacy, the transition and where states are now, but this is for convenience of analysis rather than implying any necessary sequence of or destination for change. Examples drawn from the reform of state intelligence agencies in Argentina and Brazil are discussed within the broader idea of "securitism": an umbrella concept describing how the security sector is currently governed in terms of the inter-penetration and mutual dependence of state, corporate and 'community' actors.
intelligence; governance; security