The Congress of the Disappeared

‘They came from all corners of the country. At last the Brazil of the disappeared revealed itself.’ In Kucinski’s novella, the ghosts of those disappeared by Brazil’s military dictatorship come together and organize a congress. Together, these ghosts tell the story of what happened to them, reflect critically on their past militancy, and debate how to respond to the “outbreak of fascism” of the Bolsonaro period. These veterans from the struggle of the 1960s and 70s are joined in this endeavour by some iconic figures from Brazilian history, as well as more recent victims of state and para-state violence. These include young black men killed in the favelas, Indigenous Brazilians, and people murdered in the countryside for opposing the expansion of agribusiness and wildcat mining. In the imagined space of the congress, Kucinski draws a line from the state violence of Brazil’s military dictatorship (and since) to the genocide and slavery of the colonial period in Latin America. He gives a voice to the victims, especially the disappeared, allowing them to challenge the attempt to erase them from history and denounce a culture of impunity which continues to pollute Brazilian politics today.