Demonstration in front of the former DOPS building in Rio de Janeiro commemorates the Day Against Torture.
A political demonstration this Saturday in front of the former Department of Political and Social Order (DOPS) building in Rio de Janeiro marked the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture; activists are calling for the building to be transformed into a memorial to the resistance, not into the future Civil Police museum, the purpose for which it is currently being renovated; the DOPS building housed hundreds of political prisoners since its construction in 1910 to house the Central Police Department; but it was during the military dictatorship that it became one of the regime's main instruments of repression and torture.
Vladimir Platonow - Reporter for Agência Brasil
A political act this Saturday (27) in front of the building of the former Department of Political and Social Order (Dops), in Rio de Janeiro, marked the International Day of Struggle Against Torture. The date is remembered every 26th. The activists demanded the transformation of the property into a space of memory of the resistance and not into the future Civil Police museum, the purpose for which it is being renovated.
The DOPS building housed hundreds of political prisoners since its construction in 1910 to house the Central Police Department. But it was during the military dictatorship that it became one of the regime's main instruments of repression and torture, where political prisoners were taken to be interrogated about activities classified as subversive at the time.
Having spent three stints at the DOPS (Department of Political and Social Order) in Rio, pharmacist Ana Bursztyn Miranda still bears the scars left by the arrests she suffered as a result of her activism in the National Liberation Action (ALN).
"Torture is still happening today. And there are people who defend the return of the military dictatorship, saying that they tortured and were right. So it is necessary to transform this building into a space of memory, to see if we can reduce state violence and so that the terror that prevailed at that time does not happen again," said Ana.
For her, the idea accepted by the Civil Police of ceding part of the building to the memory center, while maintaining its museum there, is irreconcilable. "This building has been abandoned for more than a decade. It is irreconcilable [to maintain both structures]," she argued.
The political event was organized by the Ocupa Dops movement and featured musical performances, film screenings, a photo exhibition, artistic interventions, and testimonies from friends and family of political prisoners. A tribute was paid to two left-wing activists who were victims of torture during the military dictatorship and who died this year: Inês Etienne and Estrella Bohadana.