“A roda grande vai passar por dentro da roda pequena”: um estudo do esquecimento e silenciamento das memórias sobre a operação mesopotâmia em Porto Franco-MA

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to analyze the memories of Operation Mesopotamia, which was an action by the Brazilian Army carried out in Bico do Papagaio, a region located on the triple border between the states of Pará, Maranhão and Tocantins. Executed in the first half of August 1971, the operation aimed to gather information and repress social movements and opposition political parties that were organized in the region. Our objective is to understand how the silencing occurred between the subjects and family members victimized by the operation. To carry out this research, we used Oral History as a work methodology, through interviews with people who were directly or indirectly linked to that moment, as well as internet sites, social networks and documentaries, also serving us, theoretically, the studies on traumatic memories and testimony, according to Pollak (1989), Portelli (2006), SeligmannSilva (2000) e Kehl (2010). We understand that this region of the Amazon Frontier, due to its agrarian conflicts and the large peasant population unassisted by governments, has provided the necessary conditions for these uprisings of social demand and what the silencing of memories about the Operation, as well as its disruption they are related to specific political contexts after redemocratization.