The Ministry of the Interior preserves the archives of the former Ministry of the Interior, with powers in prison administration, police, surveillance of dissidents… and therefore, very valuable information for historians who are dedicated to investigating Franco’s repression, as well as for the relatives of those who were retaliated against. In theory and according to the current regulations, the documents of the General Archive of the Ministry of the Interior, “except for exceptions approved by the qualifying commission”, cannot exceed 30 years old because from that moment on they must be kept in a specialized archive (historical or intermediate), but ministry sources admit that they preserve documents from the 19th century and that the transfers made to the General Administration Archive (AGA) do not even reach 10% of the total volume of what they have. The minister himself, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, recently announced the digitization in the next two years of one million documents from prison and police funds that, in reality, should no longer be there, according to Interior admits. The process has an estimated budget of about 400,000 euros.
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