Highlights: This Monday, April 1, marked sixty years since the putsch that overthrew Joao Goulart and established a military dictatorship of more than twenty years in Brazil. Rallies took place across the country under the slogan “Dictatorship never again” The context is delicate; President Lula refused to hold official ceremonies. “When you try to ignore a movement like today, you traumatize people a second time. Because refusing the work of memory is taking the risk that history repeats itself,” says a psychiatrist.

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Brazil: rallies sixty years after the military coup

This Monday, April 1, marked sixty years since the putsch that overthrew Joao Goulart and established a military dictatorship of more than twenty years in Brazil. Rallies took place across the country under the slogan “Dictatorship never again”. The context is delicate; President Lula refused to hold official ceremonies.

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A woman holds a photo of Brazilian Communist Party member Osvaldo Orlando da Costa during a protest marking the 60th anniversary of Brazil's 1964 military coup. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, April 1, 2024. REUTERS - Pilar Olivares

By: RFI Follow

With our correspondent in Rio de Janeiro,

Sarah Cozzolino

We are in the center of Rio, in front of an abandoned building which housed a detention center for opponents of the dictatorship. Luciana Lombardo is a historian. “

Inside, there are abandoned documents, there is a lot of material,”

she breathes.

But the building is in a deplorable state, it is an entire part of the country's history which will soon collapse.

United under the slogan “Dictatorship never again”, the activists criticize the decision of President Lula, who refused to organize official ceremonies. Lucas Pedretti is part of the “Memory,

Justice

and Truth” collective. For him, “

after the attempted coup d’état of January 8, 2023, it is even more important to talk about the military putsch of 1964. We have once again experienced an authoritarian threat, which has weakened Brazilian democracy

,” he believes. -he.

Talking about the past allows us to understand the present, according to Juliana Pimenta. His parents were tortured during the dictatorship. “

When you try to ignore a movement like today, you traumatize people a second time. Because refusing the work of memory is taking the risk that history repeats itself

,” asserts this psychiatrist who recalls that within the far-right government of

Jair Bolsonaro

, certain political figures were openly nostalgic for the military dictatorship .

Read alsoAnniversary of the 1964 coup d'état in Brazil: Lula does not want to "dwell on the issue"

Brazil: rallies sixty years after the military coup

Brazil: rallies sixty years after the military coup

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