The ceremony that gave the memory of the coup a commonplace air. The events organized by the government produced expected symbols, speeches without much surprise and messages that became obvious. Not even the complaints and expressions of discomfort caused surprise.
Memory does not depend on pyrotechnics to serve as a tool for a society to settle accounts with its past. The collective task of avoiding setbacks basically requires that the threats and violations that mark history are recognized in a more or less consensual way and resist attempts at distortion and relativization.
The 2022-23 coup maintains a good level of rejection among Brazilians. Surveys capture a majority repudiation of the attacks in and one of the attempted coup d’état carried out by and their allies. The country’s political divisions and the hesitation of some actors, however, make memory an insufficient factor.
The negotiation of a shameless amnesty proposal at the Congress fair and the cowardice of politicians who refuse to condemn the coup attempt mean that, in certain circles of national life, the memory of that crime committed in broad daylight is accompanied by a “see well” loaded with partisan preferences. The concentration of acts of defense of democracy around Lula, although legitimate, does not help to undo the situation.
Military personnel still take advantage of the situation to boldly propagandize one in the coup attempt. The laments are further proof that the supposed heroism of those commanders who denied support for Bolsonaro’s coup continues to be lacking in the barracks.
Efforts to weaken memory as an element of preserving democracy and excluding its aggressors make it even more necessary to resort to a second instrument, essential to this process: justice. A complete investigation and the correct punishment of those involved in the coup is worth much more than any event.
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