Military Dictatorship Research Articles

No higher law: The Uruguayan plebiscite of 1980 as a failed constituent moment

Abstract On November 30, 1980, the people of Uruguay were called on to vote on a new constitution whose objective was to legalize the military dictatorship that had ruled Uruguay since 1973. The proposed constitution would reestablish elections, political parties, and an independent judiciary, but all subject to overrule by the National Security Council (COSENA), the junta of military leaders that acted as the nation’s de facto ruling body. Despite the highly repressive political environment in which the plebiscite was held, the citizenry rejected the draft in resounding fashion by a vote of 57% to 43%. Although the Plebiscite of 1980 was certainly a “failure” from the regime’s point of view, it is considered a founding moment in Uruguayan history during which the dictatorship was delegitimized and the process of redemocratization triggered, culminating in a democratic transition in 1985. This case illustrates that constitutional failures can be successes in the long term when they launch deeper processes of democratization or constitutionalism.

Multidirectional Memory

This article aims to point to the multidirectionality between the memory of the Holocaust and the memory of the Brazilian military dictatorship based on the analysis of two literary works written by Brazilian authors, namely Bernardo Kucinski’s K. Relato de uma Busca and Chico Buarque’s O Irmão Alemão. Such analysis requires a multidirectional approach to intersecting different histories so that the concept of multidirectional memory will be methodologically mobilized. The recognition of the Shoah in the collective memory offers a counterpoint to the forgetfulness and denialism that accompany the remembrance of the Brazilian military dictatorship. At the same time, fictional literature becomes a privileged means for the articulation of different memories and for the attempt to work-through the past in the face of the gaps inherent to trauma.

Arquitetura moderna para a ditadura brasileira: Ambivalência no Quartel Militar de São Paulo, Parque do Ibirapuera (1965)

This article examines the relationship between modern architecture and the Brazilian Military Dictatorship (1964-1985) in the case of the military headquarters designed by communist architects for a violently anti-communist regime: the Second Army Headquarters in Ibirapuera, a project by a team led by the architect Paulo Bastos, a case with strong symbolic entanglements in the heart of São Paulo. Although the architects were against the regime and were the target of the dictatorship’s repression, a close look at this case reveals nuances in the actors' reactions to that context, as well as a more complex relationship between architecture and authoritarianism, which goes beyond the binary lenses of resistance or collaboration. This case is an important node to reflect on the complex relationships between architecture and politics, especially under authoritarian regimes. It also helps to reflect on modern architecture itself, the immanent contradictions of its objects, and the ambivalences of the epistemological investments that underpin it.

The politics and limitations of Afrodiasporic humour: Elnathan John’s Be(com)ing Nigerian

This article examines the politicisation and limitations of Afrodiasporic humour in Elnathan John’s 2019 text: Be(com)ing Nigerian. Although most literary commentators tend to categorise this satirical guide as a novel, it does not follow the plot structure of a conventional prose narrative. Rather, John models his text on ethics and aesthetics of Onitsha pamphlet literature, a popular culture tradition which flourished during the colonial epoch. My central argument is that John’s satirical critique of Nigerian national identity does not only elicit the reader’s laughter, but also challenges his fellow citizens to recalibrate their cultural ethics, in order to achieve a self-improvement agency both individually and collectively. In providing this self-improvement guidance, John effectively invests the reader’s aesthetic sensibility with an ideological hermeneutic, which underpins, and so enables, a vicarious satirical critique of what it means to be Nigerian in different socio-political contexts. I therefore demonstrate how John deploys colonial and Eurocentric clichés, biblical imagery and rhetoric, irony, sarcasm, parody, and hyperbole to satirise the constructedness, complexities, and ambiguities of a Nigerian identity born out of British colonialism and post-independence misrule of both military and civilian dictatorships. For insofar as form dialectically overlaps with theme, John’s self-improvement guide is ineluctably embedded with a satirical politics and poetics. That is, as a Nigerian diasporic writer who currently lives and works in Germany, John inhabits a transcultural space between the local and the global, from which he satirises both indigenous and Western values. I also contend that John’s transcultural ambivalence reveals the limitations of his Afrodiasporic humour, since Nigeria’s ethnic diversity implies cultural incommensurability and potential audience conflict. I then conclude by reflecting on how John’s satirical guide adumbrates the production, circulation, and critical reception of African postcolonial humour, a genre which remains largely undertheorised.

'We Feel Something'

On February 11, 1965, less than one year after the outset of the Brazilian military dictatorship, singer Maria Bethânia assumed one of the principal roles in the musical theater piece Opinião in Rio de Janeiro. Taking over for Nara Leão, who helped conceive the play, Bethânia was celebrated by fans, especially for her performance of co-star João do Vale’s song ‘Carcará.’ The song’s lyrics invoke imagery of the Brazilian northeast, home region of both Vale and Bethânia, and the performance includes a spoken statistical report on the migration of people from the northeast to the southern cities. Although the song’s composer denied that the song was an act of protest or political commentary, General Riograndino Kruel, then head of the Federal Police, identified it as one of the ‘subversive’ elements in the show that needed to be cut. This call to censorship contradicted the censor board’s 1964 approval of the show, during Nara Leão’s run as star. This article analyzes singer Maria Bethânia’s participation in Opinião to consider the potential for musical performance to engender political community by affective means. Drawing on archival materials and interviews conducted with audience members and participants, I argue that Bethânia’s performances were the catalyst for the formation of an oppositional ‘community of feeling,’ a collective predicated the expression of negative emotional energy toward the nascent authoritarian state. I show how audience members’ and critics’ affective response to Bethânia’s performance evidenced a shift in the tenor of the public for Opinião, which subsequently raised the suspicions of the military government. Additionally, I investigate how the dictatorship’s repressive response illustrates the possibilities and limits of a community formed through musical performance. Photo caption: Maria Bethania in the show Opinião, at Teatro de Arena, São Paulo, 1965. (Public domain / Arquivo Nacional Collection)

Benazir Bhutto, Negotiating Politics amidst Misogyny: A Study of Daughter of the East

The present research paper analyzes the struggles of Benazir Bhutto as detailed in her autobiography, Daughter of the East (1987), highlighting her confrontations with political challenges, a dictatorial regime, and numerous hardships in her quest to restore and strengthen democracy in Pakistan. Bhutto navigated adverse circumstances, including male chauvinistic politics, orthodox religious ulamas, entrenched military dictatorship, and bureaucratic elitism. The paper delves into her political challenges, patriarchal social obligations, and Islamic ideological commitments, which she managed as the first woman Prime Minister of Pakistan during her tenures from 1988-1990 and 1993-1996. This era is critical to understanding her efforts to extract Pakistan from military dictatorship's grip, vividly portrayed in her autobiography Her eloquent narrative not only chronicles her ascent as the first female Prime Minister of a Muslim-majority country but also encapsulates the relentless adversities she faced as a woman in a deeply patriarchal society. Bhutto's poignant reflections on her political odyssey inspired me to delve deeper into her life, illuminating her as a warrior in real sense and a paragon of female fortitude amidst a turbulent political landscape.

El lugar de la violencia hacia los pobladores durante la dictadura cívico-militar en Chile: disputas y silenciamientos en la construcción de narrativas oficiales (1973-2023)

Objective/context: The article analyzes the tensions in the construction of official and alternative truths about the repression of pobladores during the civil- military dictatorship in Chile (1973-1990). Despite the magnitude and massiveness of the repression against this group, it has only been officially recognized in a nominal and exclusive way. Based on a socio-historical reconstruction of the place occupied by the repression toward the impoverished sectors of the city, we investigate the narratives contained in the official reports of the truth commissions and the alternative responses of civil society. Methodology: A case study based on documentary analysis of reports, press, and secondary bibliography. Conclusions: The study evidences the contentious character of settlers in the canonical narratives on political violence during the civil-military dictatorship. In this context, civil society has played a key role in the dispute over the meanings and temporalities of violence; similarly, the place of pobladores as key actors in the political dynamics of the last decades is discussed. Originality: Given the scarcity of works that focus on the representation of pobladores in building official and alternative truths, our findings highlight the gaps and debts in constructing truths about the places and subjects of violence fifty years after the coup d’état in Chile.

The Chilean Constitutional Convention: An Exercise for the Pluriverse

Abstract Neoliberal principles were codified in a constitution and implemented during a right-wing military dictatorship (1973–1990) in Chile producing important social inequalities, as well as cultural and ecological destruction. Resistance against the arrangements inherited from that period and deepened thereafter has been paramount to recent politics. In October 2019, considerable street protests were institutionally channeled into a constitutional process where a referendum was mandated to replace the dictatorship’s constitution. There were two attempts to write a new charter: one under a Constitutional Convention that took a decolonial character, and a second one dominated by a far-right council. Drawing on Loughlin’s “constitutional imagination,” the article poses that the Convention was a world-making exercise where social movements, independent candidates, Indigenous representatives, and their allies engaged in efforts for designing a pluriverse where many worlds could fit. I claim the Convention was a space where utopia and ideology met allowing for different worlds to work together for the first time in the political arena creating an incipient intercultural politics. As a text with world-making capacity, the draft from the Convention, although rejected in 2022, materializes a process from which stronger intersectional solidarity among feminist, Indigenous, and ecological movements should be forged.

O EXÍLIO NAS PRODUÇÕES CINEMATOGRÁFICAS BRASILEIRAS: UMA ANÁLISE DO FILME DIÁRIO DE UMA BUSCA, DE FLÁVIA CASTRO

This work analyzes aspects relating to the experience of exile experienced by political activists persecuted during the Military Dictatorship, which occurred in Brazil, from 1964 to 1985,and the reflections of this experience in Brazilian cinematographic productions. To do this, we took as our object of study the film Diary of a Quest, released in Brazil in 2010, directed and starring Flávia Castro, daughter of Celso Castro, a militant found dead inside the apartment of a former Nazi officer in 1984. In this way, we work with Cinema and Dictatorship and their relationship with the concepts of Testimony Film (Gutfreind, 2011) and Search Cinema (Bartolomeu; Veiga, 2014). This work is justified by the need to understand how the arts, especially cinema, were established after the end of the dictatorship and how it can be used as an object of resistance. As a main result, we highlight, in this article, the way in which children were affected by historical material and the importance of search cinema in the constitution of the memory of the second generation.

PRESENÇA DA AUSÊNCIA: O ESPAÇO LACUNAR EM GUSTAVO GERMANO E BERNARDO KUCINSKI

This work analyse how the Ausenc’as’ exhibition, of Gustavo Germano, and the K romance, the story of a quest, of Bernardo Kucinski, bring to bear the political disappearances theme of Brazilian civil and military dictatorship, from a incomplete, empty space on both productions. So, to achieve this comprehension, it’s used a bibliographical methodology, with Barthes (1984; 2011), Didi-Huberman (1998; 2012), Figueiredo (2017), Cury (2020), among other authors as academic input. In Gustavo Germano’s project, the trauma is shaped in the absence of a body, that go beyond the family circle and enter the public sphere to incite the viewer to see beyond emptiness, the void enforced by our official history. The same movement is observed in the Kucinski’s work that also goes from a family trauma to invite the reader to remember the military dictatorship horrors, to hear the silence scream that reverberate in the darkest corners of our past. Saving the singularities of each object, the analysis points to a common force: the art as an oblivion resistance, as a meaningful visibility and highlight stage of the history, capable of avoiding that the past reconstruction be consumed in the official documents logical.

Héctor Fernández-Álvarez (1944-2023).

This article memorializes Héctor Fernández-Álvarez (1944-2023). Héctor was an exceptional mentor, therapist, supervisor, professor, researcher, author, and leader, as well as a beloved brother, partner, father, and grandfather. The consummate renaissance person who embraced all manners of cultural expressions through an intentional wanderlust, he sought to understand all forms of human suffering and to alleviate senseless ones. Héctor's career spanned well over 5 decades. He received a licenciatura degree in 1967 from the University of Buenos Aires and a PhD in 1995 from the National University of San Luis, Argentina. Héctor held multiple academic appointments throughout Latin America and Spain. He authored over 100 journal articles or book chapters, and 16 books, including a novel, La Distancia (The Distance), and Fundamentals of an Integrated Model of Psychotherapy, one of the most respected psychotherapy books in Latin America and Spain. In 1977, Héctor challenged the constraints of a military dictatorship by founding Aiglé (the everlasting flame). Aiglé remains a nongovernmental organization that delivers clinical and community services and prepares mental health practitioners informed by an active research program that evaluates training and psychotherapeutic processes and outcomes. Over the years, Héctor advanced Aiglé as a practice-oriented research clinical setting to investigate psychotherapy as it unfolds in clinical practice. He developed an integrative model of care that resulted in Aiglé's cognitive-integrative model. Aiglé has grown to be a hallmark for research-based, leading-edge psychotherapy training in Latin America. Highlights of Héctor's career and professional contributions are noted. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

NOTES ABOUT THE SCOPE OF THE PRESENT INVESTIGATION ON THE LATIN AMERICAN AUTHORITARIAN STATE AND ITS SCHOOL

The purpose of this paper is to provide a preliminary overview of the state of research on education as an instrument of domination during the «exceptional» moments assumed by the State throughout the 20th century in Latin America. This is a summary review mainly aimed at recovering part of the knowledge debated in the Ibero-American Congresses on the History of Latin American Education (CIHELA) in the last thirty years. Certainly, the universe of connotations that open up in this call outlined by the concepts «authoritarianism, violence, war, vulnerability and school», forces a limited theoretical-methodological operation and, for instance, affordable. In this sense, this work results from the search, identification, selection and analysis of a broad field of research and reflection on this subject, problems and academic objectives. Following the works presented in the CIHELA, this selection focuses on the transformations of the educational field, in general, and the school, in particular, in periods of restriction or closure of democratic participation. More specifically, it addresses the devices, uses and scope of authoritarian power according to the many variants assumed in each geography and unique history (foreign occupations, military and civil-military dictatorships, etc.).

Who is to put the bell on the cat? Democracy, dictatorship, and James M. Buchanan's early 1980s involvement with Pinochet's Chile

AbstractAlthough Milton Friedman's mid‐1970s involvement with Pinochet's Chile has generated much controversy, the claim that James M. Buchanan was similarly eager to provide Pinochet's military dictatorship with early 1980s policy advice is increasingly reported as an established fact in the vast scholarly literature on neoliberalism. This article invokes a wealth of previously ignored primary source material that sheds significant new light on Buchanan's early 1980s involvement with Chile. In particular, we evaluate whether Buchanan's May 1980 visit to Chile was an integral part of the Pinochet junta's late 1970s and early 1980s efforts to draft a new constitution. Similarly, we evaluate whether Buchanan's ideas had any significant influence on the views of Pedro Ibáñez and Carlos Cáceres (the most anti‐democratic members of Pinochet's Council of State and the primary hosts of Buchanan's May 1980 visit to Chile). Finally, we shed important new light on Buchanan's participation in the highly controversial late 1981 Mont Pèlerin Society meeting in Chile.

CATÁSTROFE E RESISTÊNCIA NA AMAZÔNIA CONTEMPORÂNEA: uma análise discursiva do conto Mamí tinha razão, de João Meirelles Filho

This communication proposes to analyse, from the perspective of comparative studies and landscape theory, the poem Canción de jinete, by Federico García Lorca, and the Brazilian resistance poetry produced after the military coup of 1964 (Ferreira Gullar, Thiago de Mello, mimeograph generation, etc.). To this end, theoretical and philosophical contributions on landscape and complexity (Claudio Guillén, Michel Collot, Anne Cauquelin, Agustín Berque, Alain Roger, Gilles Deleuze, Manuel Ángel Vázquez-Medel, Èdouard Glissant) will be taken as support to seek parallels and similarities, in the construction of the forbidden landscape, between the Spanish poet and Brazilian poetry. Military dictatorships have disastrous consequences on any community and one of the most persecuted segments, due to its power of persuasion, is the artistic/intellectual. Murders, torture and exile are the main resources used by usurpers to silence the voices of those who resist living under the shadow of totalitarianism. As a cultural construct, the literary landscape is influenced by the space-time circumstances in which the poet finds himself. The landscape apprehended in experiences of oppression and exile records the violence that human beings can exercise in situations of power, remaining as a historical testimony of a tragedy that should not be repeated, nor forgotten.

CANCIÓN DE JINETE: o olhar equidistante da paisagem proibida

This communication proposes to analyse, from the perspective of comparative studies and landscape theory, the poem Canción de Jinete, by Federico García Lorca, and the Brazilian resistance poetry produced after the military coup of 1964 (Ferreira Gullar, Thiago de Mello, mimeograph generation…). To this end, the concepts of landscape and complexity (Claudio Guillén, Michel Collot, Anne Cauquelin, Agustín Berque, Alain Roger, Gilles Deleuze, Manuel Ángel Vázquez-Medel, Èdouard Glissant) will be taken as a theoretical and philosophical support to seek parallels and similarities, in the construction of the forbidden landscape, between the Spanish poet and Brazilian poetry. Military dictatorships have disastrous consequences on any community and one of the most persecuted segments, due to its power of persuasion, is the artistic/intellectual. Murders, torture and exile are the main resources used by usurpers to silence the voices of those who resist living under the shadow of totalitarianism. As a cultural construct, the literary landscape is influenced by the space-time circumstances in which the poet finds himself. The landscape apprehended in experiences of oppression and exile records the violence that human beings can exercise in situations of power, remaining as a historical testimony of a tragedy that should not be repeated, nor forgotten.

‘More Flags’ Meets Failure: Brazil, the United States, and the Vietnam War

As part of its ‘more flags’ campaign, the United States wanted Brazil to fight in the Vietnam War. No Latin American country mattered more to the U.S. effort. The United States considered leveraging an economic loan, naval vessels, and a prioritization of Brazil in inter-American affairs. Many Brazilian officials liked the idea of a greater military presence in Vietnam. They hoped to gain valuable counterrevolutionary experience in a tropical setting akin to their own, curry favor with the United States, and acquire new military technology. Brazil’s greatest proposal centered on a request for modern naval destroyers that would see Brazil baited into combat. But public opinion, self-imposed restrictions, and key individuals ultimately doomed the prospects for Brazil’s entry. This article helps to further internationalize our understanding of the Vietnam War and situate Latin America within the broader context of the global Cold War. It adds to our understanding of the limits that existed in U.S.-Latin American relations, the U.S. commitment to multi-lateralizing its military campaign in Vietnam, and the political capacity of Brazil’s military dictatorship at home.

Loreta Valadares, Anna Maria Maiolino and resistance to the brazilian military dictatorship: a “testimonial content” and gender perspective

Loreta Valadares, Anna Maria Maiolino and resistance to the brazilian military dictatorship: a “testimonial content” and gender perspective

Darwinismo social y alimentación: la aportación de Fernando Monckeberg al programa de erradicación de la desnutrición en la dictadura chilena

This paper explores the malnutrition eradication plan devised and overseen by paediatrician and nutritionist Fernando Monckeberg within the framework of the malnutrition eradication policies implemented by the Chilean military dictatorship during the 1970s and 1980s. It also examines the theoretical and conceptual aspects developed by this author within the context of renewed social Darwinism, with eugenic consequences, such as “sociogenic damage” and the relationship between nutrition and intellectual development. It subsequently analyses practical and technical aspects encompassing the principles of healthcare intervention in populations, the relationship between nutrition and hygiene, and their implications for housing policies. In addition, the inherent contradictions and challenges associated with implementing social action programs amid the backdrop of a neoliberal dictatorship are considered.

Bryan Pitts. Until the Storm Passes: Politicians, Democracy, and the Demise of Brazil’s Military Dictatorship.

Bryan Pitts. <i>Until the Storm Passes: Politicians, Democracy, and the Demise of Brazil’s Military Dictatorship</i>.

Returning to the teaching of human rights for social work. Lessons learned in Chile from the last 50-30-5 years

ABSTRACT How should we teach recent history to uncover the links between social work and human rights? To answer this question, we critically analyze recent events in Chile with an emphasis on the training process of social work students. A series of recent events have revived the debate on memory, the guarantee of non-repetition, and human rights. The estallido social (2019), attempts to reform the constitution inherited from the military dictatorship, and the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the coup (2023) all confirm the importance of training policies, remembrance, and teaching practices in transmitting to new generations the experience gained while assisting victims of human rights violations and crimes against humanity. We review three time frames, which we illustrate through interviews and examples of collaborative and teaching work that contextualize social work education in human rights, exploring possible ways to promote remembrance and support the search for truth, justice, and guarantees of non-repetition. Lastly, based on our findings, we propose key training and research topics that can be implemented in undergraduate and graduate education in the region.