A vigilância e a repressão política durante o governo Ernesto Geisel (1974-1979): as universidades brasileiras sob a mira da ditadura

Abstract

The thesis brings to light Brazilian Army General Ernesto Beckmann Geisel’s government political context (1974-1979), by placing emphasis on political repression and vigilance in Brazilian universities, putting into dialogue the paradox between the political distension, reported at that time, and the strong impacts of the Information Community’s actions within universities. In so doing, we analyzed documents from the National Information Service (Serviço Nacional de Informação, SNI), highlighting the Committee on Information Security’s operation (Assessoria de Segurança e Informação, ASI) within institutions of higher education. We also took into consideration an analysis of the Brazilian Truth Commission final report from Federal University of Espírito Santo (CVUFES), establishing connections with Brasília University’s, Federal University of Minas Gerais’s, Federal University of Bahia’s, Campinas State University’s, and Federal University of Santa Catarina’s reports, in order to perceive common elements when it comes to repression on universities in different Brazilian states. Given such circumstances, we aimed at showing that Geisel’s administration intended to institutionalize the military regime in the first place, by employing a severe political repression, although some facts led him to become the president who initiated the distension. Our theoretical framework takes into account History of Contemporary Times studies, based on the New Political History research line, emphasizing the application of Political Culture concept, qualitative documentary sources, under the assumptions of documentary research methodology in relevant collections and bibliographical analyzes