political scientist Glacio Ari Dillon Soares died this Monday, the 14th, from complications caused by COVID-19… He was 86 years old. One of the most important researchers Brazilian military dictatorship, he coordinated the oral memory project in Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV) on the 1964 coup, repression and political opening since Foundation Documentation Center, or CPDoc.

“What was supposed to be a qualitative study to illustrate reflections on military authoritarianism eventually turned into a major military memory project, the largest in the country so far and the only one of its kind among neighboring countries suffering from similar dictatorships. We produce and organize several books together, write articles and train people in our working group, ”political scientist Maria Celina D’Araujo wrote yesterday on a social network with anthropologist Celso Castro, colleagues of Soares.

The son of an accountant and teacher, Soares has made a career at universities outside Brazil, teaching at Harvard, Ucla and no Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), at University of Florida, in the USA and in Autonomous University of Mexico… When he was in Florida, in the early 1990s, he tracked down Professor Maria Celina, then at FGV. “I wanted to do a research project on military dictatorship, and I had the idea to talk to the military who exercise power, to understand the dictatorship from the inside, its contradictions and its formal unity, in order to enter and exit the regime in a uniform manner. I received some funding in the United States and we started to prepare our plans, which changed a lot as the work progressed, ”said Maria Selina, referring to her friend.

Dillon Soares and his comrades have created the largest database of military testimony in the country, which is a reference for research on this part of the state bureaucracy, which is critical for understanding the Republic. It is a single source of information about the regime; a little over a decade later, the Army Library tried to follow suit, but without the same academic concern. “It was an ubiquitous voice saying that we have to check everything before making statements or conclusions. Absolute rigor in methodology, ”wrote Maria Selina.

After a project on the military, Dillon Soares devoted himself to researching violence in Brazil. “She joined a group of activists who successfully campaigned against road traffic fatalities in Brasilia, devoted herself to the study of interpersonal and police violence in Brazil and has done a lot of research in this regard,” said Maria Selina. The professor recently successfully completed a course of cancer treatment. “Even with the aridity of the academic world, he became a fighter for the fullness of life in an intimate, sensitive way: talking about pain, hope and faith. Another elderly, productive, healthy person who, despite being vaccinated, contracted the coronavirus, ”concluded Maria Selina.