Lugares de memória em disputa: ditadura, comissões da verdade e tempo presente

Abstract

This research proposes to investigate the disputes related to the sites of memory of the Brazilian civil-military dictatorship (1964-1985) in the present time, analyzing the insertion of this theme in the country's transitional justice and its trajectory in light of the changes that occurred in the Brazil's current political conjuncture. To this end, the recommendations regarding sites of memory made by Brazilian truth commissions (especially the National Truth Commission and the state commissions of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais) will be analyzed, as well as the treatment received by these recommendations after the extinction of such organizations. The hypothesis underlying this analysis is that the truth commissions represented opportunities to deepen reflections on how to effectively deal with the legacy of human rights violations perpetrated during the dictatorship, including the issue of the need to establish sites of memory, measures regularly recommended by such organizations. In the context subsequent to the end of the commissions' activities, however, the process of implementing such measures proved to be complex and resulted in the updating of memory disputes and conflicts about this past. In light of political radicalization, the strengthening of far-right groups and the difficulties of institutionally advancing in the context of transitional justice in the country at this juncture, social and political agents acted to develop memorialization actions, especially in digital media, capable of to reframe and make visible the sites of memory of the dictatorship, revealing the diversity and conflicting memories about the period and seeking their recognition in the public sphere.