Against state terror: lessons on memory, counterterrorism and resistance from the Global South

© 2015, © 2015 Taylor & Francis. Critical theory avows that “where there is power there is always resistance”. However, the practical implications and consequences of particular modes of resistance remain, within World Politics, under-theorised. In critical terrorism studies (CTS), this critical imperative to resist has recently emerged in the proposal to remember state terrorism. With this move, CTS aims to disturb the legitimacy of forms of violence/terror that emerge from the state. In this article, I argue that such an agenda of “resistance through memory” has already been put forth in the Global South (specifically, Latin America). Drawing on this historical experience, I elucidate some problems with the critical imperative to resist. More specifically, I show how in Brazil the Global South counter-memorial narratives of state terror share a common ground with the Global North counterterrorism discourses. I do so by analysing three underlying tropes of Brazilian remembrance that replicate Global North representations of terrorists: bestialism, pathology and dehumanisation

Versões e controvérsias sobre 1964 e a ditadura militar

O principal objetivo deste artigo é expor e discutir as mais importantes correntes da historiografia sobre o Golpe de 1964 e confrontar algumas questões controvertidas sobre repressão política, censura e outros temas da ditadura militar.<br>The main purpose of this article is to present and discuss the principal trends of historiography or Brazilian 1964 coup d'état and discuss some controversial questions censorship, political repression and other subjects concerning Brazilian military dictatorship history