Chapters authored
Cultural Heritage and the Crisis of Democracy
Democracy in Brazil is experiencing a crisis that has not been seen for a long time. After the 1988 Constitution, democratic institutions began to show signs of strengthening, such as the Public Ministry, the Judiciary, direct elections, among others. However, the rise of the extreme right – a non-exclusive event in our country – has mitigated and persecuted these institutions, with their dismantling, their ideological and religious equipment and even their extinction, as happened with the Ministry of Culture. The National Historical and Artistic Heritage Institute has also been the target of repeated attacks. Appointments of unprepared individuals, without adequate qualification to assume management and leadership positions at the Institute has been the Achilles heel of the almost centenary IPHAN (National Historical and Artistic Heritage Institute, in the acronym in Portuguese). Other facts mark the attack on places of memory and Brazilian heritage. In the midst of demonstrations around the world about the modification of place names that honor human rights defenders and the overthrowing of their statues, in Brazil the president of the republic testifies to his inability to occupy this position by giving prizes to torturers who acted as torturers in the Civil-Military Dictatorship (1964–1985). Thus, this brief text will seek to exemplify how some facts – some prior to the current administration but which solidify with it – exemplify the current democratic crisis, which strikes not only Heritage and places of memory, but also an entire state structure that comes undone through the virulence of fake news and corruption led by the Bolsonaro family.
Part of the book: Heritage