The information-based technologies and the accompanying managerial sciences have come to symbolize the ideology of progress and operate as a material instrumentality in social governance systems. Developing countries have incorporated the technologies, but have lacked a developed knowledge or service sector; the linkage of knowledge-informatization-economic development has been incomplete. Social and institutional mechanisms to produce and utilize scientific and technological knowledge must be developed if this linkage is to be completed. This paper presents: (1) a model of technology and science policy in Argentina and Brazil which argues that anti-dependency scientific and intellectual elites form an epistemic community capable of intervening in national policy-making processes; (2) an alternative model for a national study of informatics technologies based on the Colombian experience which emphasizes the anchoring of informatics technology policy within concrete social conflicts, needs, and demands; (3) a conceptual model of the role of universities and research centers in the process of Colombia's informatization; and (4) an interpretation of the Colombian experience within the framework of compensatory legitimation and conflict management. It is concluded that informatics technologies play an important role within the political, economic, and social development of Latin American countries, but the extent to which these technologies are becoming tools for progress or instruments of control are yet to be determined. (35 references) (ALL)