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PRAISING DICTATORSHIP AND DISRESPECTING MEMORY

Curated by Mariana Celano de Souza Amaral Published on 09/09/2020
  • Dictatorship and memory
  • Curated by Mariana Celano de Souza Amaral
  • Published on 09/09/2020

President Jair Bolsonaro, servants of his Administration and his supporters act against national and international recommendations about the Brazilian dictatorship by constantly praising the regime and disregarding the memory of those directly affected by the oppressive State of that period.  

During the first year of his term, in 2019, Bolsonaro determined the date that marks the military coup to be celebrated. In extremely revisionist speeches, he has affirmed that there was no dictatorship in the country, an idea that was later reproduced by, at least, two of the Ministers that were part of his government at that time, Ernesto Araújo and Ricardo Vélez Rodríguez. In 2020, Bolsonaro welcomed a lieutenant colonel that took part in the dictatorship repression apparatus, while his Vice-President, Hamilton Mourão, complimented another military officer that was admittedly involved in torture and enforced disappearance cases, Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustra.

Moreover, Federal Deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro, Jair Bolsonaro’s son, and the Minister of Economy, Paulo Guedes, have declared their support to the legal measures taken by the dictatorship which have allowed the expansion of the political persecution, such as the Institutional Act No. 5, responsible for suspending political rights and other harsh violations on human rights. Their speeches suggest that those legal changes could still be implemented up to the present days.

Violations and rights

In March 1964, the democratically elected government of João Goulart was deposed by a military coup headed by the Armed Forces, a moment that gave rise to the Brazilian civic-military dictatorship that lasted until 1985. The Brazilian National Truth Commission (Comissão Nacional da Verdade, in Portuguese, or CNV) concluded that this historical period was marked by systematic human rights violations perpetrated by the State, which implemented a silencing and persecution institutional policy against political opponents. The CNV confirmed, at least, 434 deaths or enforced disappearances that have been carried out by government agents and registered several situations of censorship, torture and arbitrary imprisonments. 

In 2010, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights recognized that the dictatorship disrespected the commitments with regard to the protection and guarantee of human rights provided by the American Convention on Human Rights. The Court also declared that the Amnesty Law – that, in 1979, granted amnesty to all persons that have ‘committed political crimes or others related to these ones’ during the dictatorship – could not prevent the investigation of the violations perpetrated by the dictatorial regime and the accountability for the actions of the agents involved.

The CVN has deliberated a series of recommendations in this same sense since 2011. The Commision determined the Armed Forces to publicly recognize their responsibility in several rights violations and that the public agents involved should be investigated and juridically held responsible for the actions. Finally, it also suggested that any official ‘celebration’ events to the military coup should be forbidden, and that the memory of the committed violations should be preserved at an institutional level. This last recommendation is especially relevant in the current context since different narratives appear to describe what happened during the Brazilian dictatorship, a scenario that got worse in the last years. 

Read below a selection of cases that demonstrate the constant praising by government members to a period recognized as violent and antidemocratic in the history of Brazil.

 
Type of power
Informal power
Branch
Executive
Power Level
Federal

BOLSONARO PRAISES PRESIDENTS FROM THE BRAZILIAN MILITARY DICTATORSHIP AND LATE PARAGUAYAN DICTATOR ALFREDO STROESSNER IN OFFICIAL TRIP TO PARAGUAY

Theme(s)
Dictatorship and memory
Authoritarian Inventory measures
Legitimation of violence and vigilantism

Read more about it here [1] and about the stance of the president on the dictatorship [2]

Feb 26 2019
 
Type of power
Informal power
Branch
Executive
Power Level
Federal

BOLSONARO REQUESTS DEFENSE MINISTRY TO HOST A ‘PROPER CELEBRATION’ ON THE 1964 MILITARY COUP ANNIVERSARY

Theme(s)
Dictatorship and memory, Negationism
Authoritarian Inventory measures
Legitimation of violence and vigilantism

Read more about it here [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

Mar 25 2019
 
Type of power
Informal power
Branch
Executive
Power Level
Federal

FOREIGN AFFAIRS MINISTER DENIES THAT THE 1964 BRAZILIAN MILITARY COUP WAS A DICTATORSHIP

Theme(s)
Dictatorship and memory, International relations
Authoritarian Inventory measures
Legitimation of violence and vigilantism

Read more about the positions of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs here [1][/link], about ‘revision’ on textbooks to deny the military coup here [2] and about this episode – in Portuguese [find out here]

Mar 27 2019
 
Type of power
Formal power
Branch
Executive
Power Level
Federal

WOMEN, FAMILY AND HUMAN RIGHTS MINISTER PUBLISHES ORDINANCE TO CHANGE AMNESTY COMMISSION, WHICH IS RESPONSIBLE FOR BRINGING REPARATION TO THE MILITARY DICTATORSHIP VICTIMS

Theme(s)
Dictatorship and memory
Authoritarian Inventory measures
Decrease of control and/ or centralization of power

Read more about it here in Portuguese [find out here] and about Bolsonaro’s relationship wih groups that oppose torture and fight for acknowledgement of the dictatorship crimes here [1]

Mar 27 2019
 
Type of power
Informal power
Branch
Executive
Power Level
Federal

BOLSONARO CLAIMS THERE WAS NO DICTATORSHIP IN BRAZIL, CONTRADICTING RECORDED HISTORY

Theme(s)
Dictatorship and memory, Negationism
Authoritarian Inventory measures
Legitimation of violence and vigilantism

Read more about it here [1] and about Bolsonaro’s celebration of the military dictatorship here [2]

Mar 27 2019
 
Type of power
Informal power
Branch
Executive
Power Level
Federal

WOMEN, FAMILY AND HUMAN RIGHTS MINISTER CRITICIZES AMNESTY COMMISSION AND REQUIRES REVISION OF THE ENTITY’S PREVIOUS ACTS

Theme(s)
Dictatorship and memory
Authoritarian Inventory measures
Legitimation of violence and vigilantism

Read more about this episode – in Portuguese [find out here], the complete report of the National Commission of Truth on torture and other practices during the Brazilian dictatorship – in Portuguese [1] and watch video on the National Commission of Truth and on the Brazilian dictatorship [2]

Mar 27 2019
 
Type of power
Informal power
Branch
Executive
Power Level
Federal

EDUCATION MINISTER DENIES THAT 1964 MILITARY COUP HAPPENED AND MAINTAINS THAT SCHOOL TEXTBOOKS WILL BE ALTERED TO ‘INCLUDE BROADER VERSION OF HISTORY’

Theme(s)
Dictatorship and memory, Education
Authoritarian Inventory measures
Legitimation of violence and vigilantism

Read more about it here [1]

Apr 03 2019
 
Type of power
Formal power
Branch
Executive
Power Level
Federal

BOLSONARO EXONERATES ALL EXPERTS FROM THE NATIONAL MECHANISM OF PREVENTION AND FIGHT AGAINST TORTURE (‘MNPCT’)

Theme(s)
Dictatorship and memory, Public security
Authoritarian Inventory measures
Violation of institutional autonomy

Read more about it here [1]

Jun 10 2019
 
Type of power
Informal power
Branch
Executive
Power Level
Federal

BOLSONARO LIES ABOUT JOURNALIST TORTURED DURING THE MILITARY DICTATORSHIP IN BRAZIL AND SAYS SHE IS DRAMATIC

Theme(s)
Dictatorship and memory, Gender and sexual orientation
Authoritarian Inventory measures
Legitimation of violence and vigilantism

Read more about this context here [1] and about this episode – in Portuguese [find out here]

Jul 19 2019
 
Type of power
Informal power
Branch
Executive
Power Level
Federal

BOLSONARO CLAIMS HE CAN TELL THE PRESIDENT OF THE BRAZILIAN BAR’S ASSOCIATION (‘OAB’) HOW HIS FATHER DISAPPEARED DURING THE MILITARY DICTATORSHIP, TRIVIALIZING THE FACT THAT HE WAS ASSASSINED

Theme(s)
Dictatorship and memory
Authoritarian Inventory measures
Legitimation of violence and vigilantism

Read more about it here [1] [2] [find out here]. Read more about Bolsonaro’s statements on the Brazilian military coup and dictatorship here [3] [4] [find out here]

Jul 29 2019
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