Anticomunismo e repressão em Diamantina (1937-1964)

Abstract

The main focus of the present thesis consisted of an investigation on the repression, triggered by the coup of 1964 in Diamantina (MG), taking in consideration the acts of local communist militants, and anti-communist fighters, particularly in the period before the coup. Due to the institutionalization of repression, followed by the democratic rupture, a series of illegal arrests took place throughout the country. In Diamantina, 19 people were pursued and withheld by the military of the 3rd Infantry Battalion (3rd BI), then sent to the places of repression and indicted in the Military Police Inquiry (IPM) No. 111 for political crime. The majority of such victims of repression was connected to the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB) for left-wing activities during several years. In contrast, the anti-communist fighters in Diamantina played a unique role in this arbitrary process, influencing, in their own way, the course of the political crisis at local level. The research discussed in this thesis is based, on the archives of the Departamento de Ordem Política e Social (DOPS), Minas Gerais, and on the documentary collection of the Typographic Museum Pão de Santo Antônio, where the newspaper Voz de Diamantina was consulted. In addition, some interviews, conducted with former political prisoners of the city, we also considered.