Dear AoIR members, We are delighted to share with you the call for the *I Latin American Forum for Intelligence Studies (inteLA)* *Date*: 25-26 March, 2026 *Location:* Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUC-RS) *Organization:* University of Hamburg (UHH), Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUC-RS), Latin American Network for Surveillance, Technology and Society Studies (Lavits), School of Applied Sciences – Unicamp, and Legiscraft *About:* The Latin American Forum on Intelligence Studies (inteLA) is an initiative created to address a practical gap: the need to establish, in Latin America, a regional hub that continuously brings together emerging and ongoing debates across a broad academic and critical field on intelligence and democracy. As a way of building and advancing capacities for analyzing risks, priorities, and institutional options in the region — avoiding a fragmented and geopolitically isolated scenario — the proposal is to move forward with best practices for formulating proposals grounded in Latin American institutional, technological, and socioeconomic realities. Dialogue with other regions is equally important, both because of the international nature of the subject and through multilateral strategies. inteLA therefore brings together researchers, public officials, and civil society actors to build a regional point of reference: a forum capable of sustaining high-quality research while maintaining close ties with institutional practice. In doing so, inteLA paves the way for Latin American scholarship and perspectives to engage more directly with international debates. Rather than treating the region as a marginal case, the Forum seeks to ensure that its experiences — from democratic transitions to institutional constraints and governance dilemmas — are taken seriously in the way intelligence is studied and understood. The first edition of inteLA is dedicated to the oversight of intelligence in democracy. On the one hand, technological change is rapidly expanding the intrusive capacities of the State. On the other hand, traditional oversight mechanisms remain limited, creating an environment in which serious abuses can flourish and democratic safeguards may gradually erode over time. In this context, institutional, multi-stakeholder, and multilateral dialogues are central to the democratic development of the field. With this concern in mind, inteLA 2026 will bring together participants from academia, the public sector, and civil society to deepen the diagnosis and map out pathways for reform. *Day 1 (morning)* *Keynote speaker:* José Manuel Ugarte (University of Buenos Aires) [*in Spanish]* *First Panel: "Systems of Control, the Rule of Law, and New Technologies" *[*in English]* Prof. Dr. Marion Albers (University of Hamburg) Prof. Dr. Alcides Perón (Unicamp) Dr. Thorsten Wetzling (interface) Anna Cruz (ESINT - Brazilian School of Intelligence) Moderation: André Ramiro (University of Hamburg/Lavits) *Second Panel: "The future of intelligence oversight in Brazil" **[in Portuguese]* Fernanda Melchionna (Brazilian National Congress, PSOL-RS) Waldemar Gonçalves (Brazilian National Data Protection Authority) Dr. Fernanda Vilares (Brazilian Office of the Federal Attorney General) Dr. José Fernando Chuy (Internal Inspector of the Brazilian Intelligence Agency - Abin) Natália Viana (Agência Pública) Moderation: Conrado Klöckner (Legiscraft) *Presentation:* *"The architecture of an efficient oversight system."* White paper about a new Brazilian intelligence external oversight (Conrado Klöckner) *[in Portuguese]* *- Lunch break -* *Working Groups (afternoon) **[in Portuguese]**:* *1 - *Intelligence and Sovereignty *2 - *Limits of Intelligence Activities *3 - *Emerging Technologies and Data Protection *4 - *Institutional Architecture and Oversight *Day 2 (morning) - *[*in English]* *Hybrid Panel: Global Tendencies in Intelligence Oversight: Gaps and Benchmarks* Amir Cahane (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) Prof. Dr. Paul McGarr (King's College London) Prof. Dr. José Manuel Ugarte (University of Buenos Aires) Conrado Klöckner (Legiscraft) Moderation: Prof. Dr. Maísa Edwards (King's College London) Free registrations at: https://www.legiscraft.org/event-details/intela-2026 If you have any questions, don't hesitate to send a message. Looking forward to seeing you there! -- *André Ramiro* PhD Candidate in Informational and Public Law at Hamburg University. Stanford University's Digital Civil Society Lab Fellow - Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society (PACS) (24-25). Fellow Researcher at Weizenbaum Institute - "Technology, Power, and Domination" Research Group (23). Visiting Researcher at the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society - Alexander von Humboldt Foundation's Fellow (22-23). Member of LAVITS - Latin American Network of Surveillance, Technology and Society Studies. Co-Founder and former Director of IP.rec - Law and Technology Research Institute of Recife.