General Directorate of Security (Portugal)

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General Directorate of Security

Direção-Geral de Segurança
Badge of the DGS
Agency overview
Formed	1969
Preceding agency	PIDE
Dissolved	1974
Superseding agency	Military Intelligence Police Foreigners and Borders Service
Type	Police
Jurisdiction	Portugal
Headquarters	Lisbon
Parent agency	Ministry of the Interior

The General Directorate of Security (Portuguese: Direção-Geral de Segurança; DGS) was a Portuguese criminal police body active between 1969 and 1974, during the last years of the Estado Novo dictatorship.

Although their duties included, in addition to state security, the supervision of foreigners, border control, and the fight against illegal trafficking of migrants, historically the DGS was essentially a secret police responsible for repression, without judicial control, of all forms of political opposition to the Estado Novo.

The DGS was created in 1969 to succeed to the International and State Defense Police (PIDE), by Decree-Law no. 49 401, of November 24, 1969,^[1] of the government of Marcello Caetano.^[2] It was disbanded in the continent and islands in 1974, following the Revolution of April 25 that ended the Estado Novo, by Decree-Law no. 171/74 of April 25. In overseas territories it continued to exist until 1975, under the designation of "Military Intelligence Police".