Excavation at DOI-Codi finds traces of the dictatorship – 08/13/2023 – Politics

Inscription on the wall, biological material that may be blood and other traces found by a group of researchers during an excavation that took place until this Saturday (12) at the DOI-Codi in São Paulo can be used as evidence in legal proceedings and help to sustain a lawsuit calling for the former crackdown center to become a memorial.

The material was found during an excavation organized by professionals from the archeology laboratories of Unifesp (Federal University of São Paulo), Unicamp (State University of Campinas) and UFMG (Federal University of Minas Gerais), who had been at the site since the beginning of August to do the search.

The DOI-Codi (Information Operations Detachment – Internal Defense Operations Center) was the main center of repression in Brazil during the military dictatorship (1964-1985). It is estimated that around 7,000 people were trapped there between 1969 and 1983 and that the deaths at the hands of agency agents were between 52 and 79.

According to Deborah Neves, post-doctoral student in history at Unifesp and project coordinator, the excavation is part of an unprecedented action in the country in the context of investigating centers of repression.

“It is the first time that we work with three lines of archeology at the same time: the excavations, the forensics —which allows the investigator to seek information that can be used in court— and the public, aimed at publicizing the work”, he says.

The work on three fronts helps to obtain material traces that can be used in legal proceedings, in addition to strengthening the debate on the importance of memory for reflection on contexts related to violent pasts.

In addition to inscriptions on the wall and biological material that the first tests point to be blood, objects such as shoe soles, buttons, bottles of cologne and candy wrappers were found.

A stamp ink bottle is another example of a trace found in the excavations. According to the researchers, the object corroborates the report of political prisoners who claim to have been booked in front of the building, where interrogations and torture took place.

“The objects found are everyday materials that cause unique emotional and reflective effects”, says Andres Zarankin, a professor at the Department of Anthropology and Archeology at UFMG who is conducting the excavations.

With experience in detention centers in Brazil and Argentina, Zarankin conducted an excavation in 2020 at the Dops (Department of Political and Social Order) in Belo Horizonte that revealed the inscription of songs and poetry on the walls of the repressive body. “They are like direct words between us and the people who were being held there,” she says.

At Club Atlético, a detention center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Zarankin and his team excavated a ping-pong ball that turned out to be a revealing object of the daily life of repressors in that country during the dictatorship (1976-1983).

“Survivors told us that there was a ping-pong table on which the repressors played while the prisoners were tortured”, says Zarankin. “The prisoners were hooded, but they could hear the ball going back and forth. It became a material representation of the experience of being in that place”.

In the case of the São Paulo DOI-Codi, the ink bottle and other objects are traces that can help explain the dynamics that occurred in the detention center.

The excavated building has two floors, in which the researchers opened five blocks, spaces in which they searched for traces. The building has a bathroom on each floor. On the ground floor there are three rooms and a dining room. The first floor has four smaller rooms and one larger one. The second has, in addition to the salon, three small rooms.

Célia da Rocha Paes, 79, returned for the first time on Saturday (5) to the building where she was trapped in 1970, for a number of days that she cannot specify. “I know that I arrived in December at the DOI-Codi. I think I spent the New Year at the Dops”, she says.

The exact time she was imprisoned is not the only record that Celia cannot recall. “I don’t remember if I ate, went to the bathroom or other practical things. I just remember being arrested, the interrogation and the flights of stairs I climbed to be interrogated”, she says.

His clearest memory is of concern for his then partner, Manuel Cação, who was also imprisoned at DOI-Codi. As he was an epileptic, Celia feared he would have seizures during the torture sessions.

According to her, the alleged reason for her arrest was her connection with Rodrigo Lefèvre, an architect and university professor who opposed the dictatorship. About the past, she wants to thank her friends who gave her material and emotional support, even taking risks during the period of repression.

“By excavating and evidencing what happened there [DOI-Codi], we may be able to remember things. Physical traces can help trigger our memory,” she says.

One of the expectations of the researchers is that the material found in the excavations can strengthen the claim in favor of transforming the site into a memorial. Currently, one of the four buildings that make up the complex serves as the address for the 36th Police District of São Paulo.

In June 2021, the MP-SP (Ministério Público de São Paulo) filed a lawsuit to implement a memorial dedicated to reflection on the dictatorship on the site.

The action, between the MP-SP and the Public Treasury of the State of São Paulo, is still in progress.

“Turning it into a memorial is important because museums help us understand not only the past, but also the present”, says Janice Theodoro da Silva, 75.

She was arrested at DOI-Codi in 1971 for having a connection with the POC (Communist Workers’ Party).

“What is found helps us to reflect from fragments of memory, which can be material fragments, such as clubs on the floor, a typewriter, a shock machine or oral testimonies”, he says.

“Even people close to me don’t realize the importance of reconstituting the past”, adds Célia Paes. “They talk as if we were brooding over the past, and we are not. We are showing that this happened and that we have to take measures so that it doesn’t happen again”.

In addition to the excavations, soundings and scraping of walls that took place until this Saturday, the project offered workshops, guided tours and training for volunteers and teachers. This Monday (14), interested parties can still make visits from 10 am to 11 am and from 3 pm to 4 pm.

To participate, simply go to the venue, at Rua Tutóia, 921, in Vila Mariana, or request an appointment on the Instragram account @arqueodoicodisp.

According to Unicamp researcher Aline Vieira de Carvalho, the expectation is that the project will continue, with a new stage of excavations.