{"id":8244,"date":"2019-04-30T21:21:15","date_gmt":"2019-04-30T21:21:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/portuguese\/?p=8244"},"modified":"2019-04-27T22:01:44","modified_gmt":"2019-04-27T22:01:44","slug":"5-facts-about-the-brazilian-military-regime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/portuguese\/5-facts-about-the-brazilian-military-regime\/","title":{"rendered":"5 facts about the Brazilian military regime"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is no surprise that Jair Bolsonaro, the current president of Brazil, came to <\/span>poder<\/span><\/i> (power) fomenting many controversies that have been increasing in his first months of <\/span>governo<\/span><\/i> (government). Be it his declarations about the Nazi government being <\/span>de esquerda<\/span><\/i> (leftist) right during visit to the Holocaust Museum in Israel, or his attitudes seen as misogynistic, racist, or homophobic. One of his most striking and controversial positions was during a vote for the impeachment of former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, a woman who was in the <\/span>luta armada<\/span><\/i> (armed struggle) against the military government in the 1960s and 1970s, during which time she was <\/span>presa<\/span><\/i> (arrested) and <\/span>torturada<\/span><\/i> (tortured) along with other <\/span>companheiros de luta<\/span><\/i> (fighting comrades). More significant than the vote in favor of the impeachment was the <\/span>homenagem<\/span><\/i> (homage) he paid to Colonel Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustra, who became known as one of the most cruel torturers of prisoners during the Brazilian military government.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Manifesta\u00e7\u00e3o estudantil contra a ditadura militar (photo by Brazilian National Archives [Public domain])<\/p><\/div>Known in Brazil as <\/span>\u201cAnos de chumbo\u201d <\/span>(Years of Lead), due to the violence of <\/span>embates pol\u00edticos<\/span><\/i> (political strife), Bolsonaro’s tribute to the torturer colonel reignited a great debate about the period in which the military forces occupied the government in Brazil (1964-1985). While some experts call this period <\/span>golpe militar <\/span><\/i>(military coup), the current president of Brazil and part of his <\/span>seguidores<\/span><\/i> (followers) claim that in fact there was a Revolution. To better understand this issue, let us go over <\/span>cinco fatos<\/span><\/i> (5 facts) about the period in which the military ruled the country.<\/span><\/p>\n

1 – During the 21 years of government, the National Congress was <\/span>fechado<\/span><\/i> (closed) three times by the military. The allegations for such <\/span>medidas<\/span><\/i> (measures) were always the same, the presence of what the military called ideologies contrary to theirs.<\/span><\/p>\n

2 – Between the 60s and 70s, Brazil lived what was known as the milagre econ\u00f4mico<\/em> (economic miracle), a significant <\/span>aumento <\/span><\/i>(increase) in its <\/span>riquezas<\/span><\/i> (wealth) and investing in gigantic infrastructure that generated thousands of new <\/span>empregos<\/span><\/i> (jobs).<\/span><\/p>\n

3 – However, this economic <\/span>crescimento<\/span><\/i> (growth) was not followed by a distribution of <\/span>renda<\/span><\/i> (income) among Brazilians. The <\/span>sal\u00e1rio m\u00ednimo <\/span><\/i>(minimum wage) had an increase below the inflation <\/span>taxa<\/span><\/i> (rate), which drastically increased social and economic <\/span>desigualdade<\/span><\/i> (inequality) in the country.<\/span><\/p>\n

4 – The agency responsible for elucidating the cases of <\/span>desaparecimentos <\/span><\/i>(missing persons), <\/span>mortes<\/span><\/i> (deaths) and tortures caused by the military government accounted for 434 <\/span>pessoas<\/span><\/i> (people) who died or went missing due to <\/span>persegui\u00e7\u00e3o pol\u00edtica<\/span><\/i> (political persecution) during the period. However, it is estimated that the number is <\/span>muito maior<\/span><\/i> (much higher), but a lot did not go on record back then.<\/span><\/p>\n

5 – Similarly, numbers are <\/span>imprecisos <\/span><\/i>(inaccurate) when it comes to torture <\/span>registros<\/span><\/i> (records). According to a reputed Brazilian institute, over 6,000 <\/span>den\u00fancias<\/span><\/i> (reports) of torture were filed between 1964 and 1977. However, the<\/span> \u00f3rg\u00e3o brasileiro de direitos humanos<\/span><\/i> (Brazilian human rights agency) estimates that more than 20,000 Brazilians were tortured during that time.<\/span><\/p>\n

On March 31srt, 2019, <\/span>v\u00e9spera<\/span><\/i> (eve) of the 55th anniversary of the<\/span> in\u00edcio<\/span><\/i> (beginning) of the military government, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro declared that \u201ccelebrations” were due in honor of what he calls a revolution. <\/span>E a\u00ed, qual a sua opini\u00e3o sobre o assunto? <\/span>So what’s your take on the subject?<\/span><\/p>\n

You can also watch two films on YouTube on these different perspectives here, if you care to learn more:<\/span><\/p>\n

Eu me lembro<\/strong><\/p>\n