The National Historical and Artistic Heritage Institute (Iphan) states that it will prioritize, in 2025, the process of listing the building where the Information Operations Detachment – Internal Defense Operations Center (DOI-Codi) operated, located on Rua Barão de Mesquita, Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro (RJ). There were arrests, torture and deaths of opponents during the period of the military dictatorship in Brazil. The intention is for the location to become a memory space.
Iphan’s position follows the recommendation of the Federal Public Ministry (MPF), released this Tuesday (21). The MPF demanded that the body prioritize the listing of the building, the process of which, according to the institution, has been underway at the Institute since 2013.
DOI-Codi was a body linked to the Army, which operated during the military dictatorship as an agency of political repression, between 1964 and 1984. There, those considered enemies of the government were imprisoned, tortured and killed. There were units in different cities, such as São Paulo, Recife and Porto Alegre, in addition to Rio de Janeiro. In Rio, the building where the organization operated is currently where the 1st Police Battalion of the Rio de Janeiro Army is located.
The place was a space for the torture and death of dozens of political prisoners, including the engineer and former federal deputy Rubens Paiva, whose story was portrayed in the film I’m Still Here. The former parliamentarian was taken from his home, in Rio de Janeiro, by agents from the Aeronautics Information Center (Cisa), on the holiday of January 20, 1971 (St. Sebastian’s Day), 54 years ago.
Paiva was not the only victim of the dictatorship, National Truth Commission identified at least 434 dead or missing people by dictatorial forces.
In a statement, Iphan said that the request to list the building “is in the process of being analyzed. This is one of the municipality’s priority demands for the year 2025”, he stated.
Iphan added that it is awaiting authorization from the Army to carry out a technical visit to the site. “At the moment, the Institute is making a new attempt to advance the process, and is awaiting authorization from the Army to carry out the technical visit, which is essential for the continuity and completion of the analysis,” said the Institute.
“Iphan reaffirms its commitment to preserving places of memory, essential for the maintenance of Brazilian democracy”, the institute also highlighted.
For family and friends of victims of the dictatorship and organizations fighting for memory and justice, the listing of the old DOI-Codi is fundamental. “We have some struggles around the construction of places of memory, so DOI-Codi is one of them and it is very important”, says the director of the Tortura Nunca Mais Group in Rio de Janeiro, Rafael Maul de Carvalho Costa
According to Costa, the MPF’s recommendation and the prioritization of listing are initial steps towards preserving the memory of the victims of the dictatorship. He highlights that there are other places that should also become spaces of memory, such as the Department of Political and Social Order (Dops)in the center of Rio de Janeiro.
“This recommendation is very important to speed up and not stop at DOI-Codi. We even need to reveal new places of memory that can also show the extent of the violence of the military business dictatorship in Brazil, which affected a much larger population than those that are officially recognized to date”, says Costa.
THE Brazil Agency contacted the Army and is awaiting deployment.
