Carnival party named after dictatorship torturers called 'insult to Brazil'

Source: Guardian

Prosecutors seek to stop the event named after a police intelligence agency that tortured dissidents during the 1964-1985 military regime

Sam Cowie in São Paulo

@samcowie84
Thu 8 Feb 2018 01.30 EST Last modified on Thu 8 Feb 2018 17.00 EST

As Brazil gears up for its annual carnival celebrations, an event in São Paulo has been accused of glorifying crimes from the country’s dictatorship past.

Billed as “Brazil’s largest anti-Communist block party”, the carnival event “Dops Basement” is named after the Department of Political and Social Order, a police intelligence agency that tortured dissidents during the 1964-1985 military regime.

The online flyer bears the images of the Dops chief Sérgio Paranhos Fleury and the army colonel Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustra, who were accused of commanding torture and death squads under the dictatorship.

Local prosecutors tried to stop the party, scheduled this weekend, but a judge overruled them, citing freedom of expression. The prosecutors are appealing the decision.




Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/08/brazil-sao-paulo-carnival-party-dictatorship