Moving monuments to dark memories.

• Author: Holston, Mark
• Position: !Ojo!

THREE SOUTH AMERICAN nations that weathered years of often-harsh military rule in the 1970s and 1980s have found effective ways of turning symbols of repression into monuments to human rights.

In Sao Paulo, Brazil's largest city and strongest center of opposition to the succession of military governments that ruled the nation from 1964 to 1985, state government officials have turned a former prison into a museum. The Liberty Memorial occupies space in a 1920s-era office building in the historic downtown district known as Luz that during the dictatorship was a center for domestic spying, interrogation, imprisonment, and torture. The now-defunct Department of Order and Social Politics, or DOPS, as it was known by its Portuguese acronym, gathered intelligence on suspected subversives and took into custody those believed to be actively involved in efforts to overthrow the military government. Among the notables who saw the inside of the building as a detainee was politician Mario Covas, who years later would be elected governor of Sao Paulo state and a major presidential candidate. Names of suspects found among old records include those of ex-president Fernando Henrique Cardoso and famous actor Paulo Autran.

One project associated with the museum is the publishing of a series of books that chronicle the activities of the DOPS, including the reproduction of internal documents and period photos. The museum has been home to several exhibitions and installations dealing with the themes of tolerance and repression. The most striking feature of the facility is the preservation of four small cells where political prisoners were held. The museum is located at Largo General Osorio 66, near the Pinoteca do Estado, Sao Paulo's most important art museum, and the...