Military Dictatorship in Brazil

Brazil “Celebrates” 50 Years of Dictatorship

     

      “Restore legitimacy, reinvigorate democracy, restore peace and promote progress and social justice.” This may sound like an ordinary democratic speech but it isn’t. These words where given by Humberto de Alencar Castello Branco, the first president of the military dictatorship that occurred in Brazil (1964-1985). The year of 2014 marked the 50th anniversary of the coup– which terrorized, tortured, censored and chased the Brazilian population for 21 years. They’ve tortured anyone who could be involved with communism and censored all art that could relate to progressive ideas.

      

        In 2011, the president Dilma Rousseff founded the “Comitê Nacional da Verdade” (National Truth Committee) that investigated the severe violations to the Human Rights, precisely the ones that happened in the dictatorship. “Nowadays there is, with the National Truth Committee, a moment of justice, of a reckoning with the past. Because of that, the population discusses that more than it did some time before, therefore, there is more knowledge and interest from the students about the situation” tells Gislene Lacerda, PhD in history in UFRJ (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro).

       

     To know more about the Military Dictatorship that occurred in Brazil, there is a list of movies that you can watch to discuss about it:
 “Matou A Família e Foi ao Cinema” by Júlio Bressan

 “Terra em Transe” by Glauber Rocha

 “O Bandido da Luz Vermelha” by Rogério Sganzerla

Images:

Woman in a protest asking for the censorship to end. "Against the censorship for the Culture" is written in a poster.

Man writing "Against the Dictatorship" in a wall.

"Para Frente, Brasil" movie picturing how torture should be like (there are really few images about dictatorship torture).

Ana Laura e Júlia Ilha - 3A