Rousseff says 1964 coup must not be forgotten
President Dilma Rousseff has given an address to mark the 50th anniversary of the military coup that launched the dictatorship in Brazil on March 31, 1964. She said that the atrocities committed in the period cannot be forgotten, for the sake of the men and women who have been killed or gone missing as they fought for democracy.
“Today, we must remember and tell people about what happened. We owe this to those who have died and disappeared, we owe it to those who were tortured and persecuted, and we owe it to their families. We owe it to all Brazilians,” the president said in a speech at Palácio do Planalto.
“All human pain can be endured if you can tell the story. The pain we have stood, the visible – and the invisible – scars that all those years have left on us can be endured and overcome because today we have a strong democracy where we can tell our story,” the president said, quoting German philosopher Hannah Arendt.
Rousseff said that remembering and sharing the past with the younger generations is part of the process initiated by Brazilians who stood up for democratic liberties, Amnesty, the Constituent Assembly, direct elections and, more recently, for the creation of the National Truth Commission.
“Fifty years ago, on March 31 night, Brazil was deprived of its active, independent, and democratic institutions. For 21 years – more than two decades – our institutions, our freedom, our dreams were all muted,” she recalled. “Today we can look at this period and learn the lessons, because we have left it behind. The efforts made by each of us, by leaders of the past, by those who have lived and those who have died, have helped us move past it,” she went on.
From the struggle for democracy, the president said, Brazilians have learned to appreciate the value of freedom of expression, independence of the legislative and judiciary powers, and voting rights. “We have learned the value of all Brazilians being able to choose their representatives through direct and secret ballot – governors, mayors... the value of being able to elect, for example, a former exile, a union leader who has been arrested several times, and a woman who has also been jailed,” she said, referring to her own experience as a political prisoner and victim of torture during the military rule.
According to Rousseff, the restoration of Brazilian democracy was a whole process built on the combined efforts of successive governments elected after the dictatorship, and on the struggle of those who died as they stood up against the “illegal brutality” of the State, alongside all those who have worked together for national pacts and agreements such as those that resulted in the Constitution of 1988.
Translated by Mayra Borges
Fonte: Rousseff says 1964 coup must not be forgotten
