Brazil: Successful political event against putschism and pacification
Feature image: event against the politics of putschism and pacification. Source: AND
On the 25th of April, A Nova Democracia made a political event entitled: “Neither forget nor pacification: condemn the military coup yesterday and today!”, in which 300 people attended and another 1,000 people watched through Youtube. The event remarked the condemnation of the putschists and the war criminals of 1964 and of the military regime that followed it. Another key point was the demand to reinstate the Special Commission on the Political Killed and Disappeared of the military regime, that was demanded through signature collection.
The general editor and editor-in-chief of the AND, Victor C. Bellizia said: “This event is not only a strong response to the coup. It is this, but more. We think that from here a political field is demarcated for those who are united in the idea that it is necessary to stop the growth and the action of the extreme right and the interventionism of the high command of the Armed Forces in the national political life through popular mobilizations.”
In the first debate, “The crimes and the impunity of the military regime”, presided by CEBRASPO, testimonies of two relatives of João Carlos Haas Sobrinho and Mário Alves, who the military regime made disappear due to political reasons, were presented. The actions of the high military command was also denounced by journalists and professors of different universities as well as João Carvalho, member of the AND and historian. Additionally, the Union of Construction Workers of BH (STIC-BH/Marreta) and the League of Poor Peasants of Norte de Minas and Sul da Bahia participated to talk on the people’s struggles of the people’s movements in the years of the regime.
The second panel, “The political situation, the coup and the control of yesterday and today” dealt with the necessity of denouncing the crimes of the military putschists of the country today. Victor C. Bellizia, who presided the table, was among the speakers and highlighted that in addition to be a firm response to the 60th anniversary of the military coup of 1964, the Political Event is also “the demarcation that represents the extreme right and the coup d’etat of today in the country”. He expressed that, in front of the current situation, “it is necessary to give a serious response through students, workers, peasants and all the popular masses’ mobilizations to impose the resistance to the counterrevolutionary offensive pushed by the extreme right, who occupied until short time ago the presidency of the republic, and also the abject and scandalous interventionism of the High Command of the Armed Forces in the national policy.”
The general editor also highlighted the chapters of November of 2022 and the 8th January of 2023 among the interventionism of the high military officials. He stated that it is necessary to recognize that the “re-democratization call of 1988 was absolutely unable to burry the coup d’etat, that this is the rule in our country, as the six military coups since ‘the republic proclamation’ show, as the attributions that are given to the Armed Forces in all the constitutions to “restore the internal power” proofs, assuming that the internal chaos is the ‘people’.” The general editor of the AND criticized the conses of the ruling classes at the end of the regime, they are responsible of not holding accountable the torturers and the putschists of 1964 that were present during the regime, those are the police forces responsible still today of the massacres of the people in the favelas and in the periphery of the country.” In the end, he remarked that it is necessary to defend the democratic liberties as condition to rise the popular masses to impose a barrier against putschism.
After the event, the A Propósito program interviewed several of the speakers. Among what was said, there was harsh criticism of the words of da Silva who not consider necessary to “shake the past”: “it was a great offense to the relatives of the dead and missing people and to all the Brazilian society”. The presence of different sectors of the society that will unite with the agreement to elevate the struggle to punish the putschists of yesterday and today was also highlighted. Another speaker remarked in the interview the necessity to incorporate a new generation of activists in the struggle to condemn the crimes committed during the military regime: “Not only our cause struggles for answers, truth, memory and justice. There are several struggles that Brazil must take into account and in which it must focus. The Brazilian State has debts, not only with us, but with other segments.”
