THE DEFENSE OF ORDER AND THE WAR AGAINST THE SUBVERSIVE

Legal and Historical Aspects

Abstract

This study aims to discuss the state of exception in Brazil during the 1960s and 1970s, focusing particularly on its legal and historical aspects. To this end, we draw on Carl Schmitt's theoretical framework regarding legal matters and Bronislaw Baczko's concept of the Social Imaginary. Through an analysis of the 1973 special information report produced by the Ministry of Aeronautics, whose main subject was "Theory and Practice of Counter-Rebellion," we examine the legal and social efforts to instill a specific narrative within the military concerning the fight against subversion and the portrayal of subversives. Understanding the construction of this particular narrative is essential to grasping the long-term repercussions of that period, which have persisted to the present day, shaping numerous myths and beliefs that continue to influence the collective imagination of the population.