Student struggles and military dictatorship: The UnB invasions and 1968

Abstract

In this article it is analyzed one of the main events related to the student struggle in 1968: the invasion of the Universidade de Brasília (UnB). Our hypothesis is that this episode is made explicit to the closure of the scheme, which surfaced with the threat of a new institutional act, since the student demonstrations. Although this university had already been invaded in 1964 and the student demonstrations have already been silenced, the political outcome of the year 1968 has with them a strong binding. The invasion of UnB explains that the “war” between the Executive and the Legislature reached an alarming dimension. The delay between the arrest of the student leaders at Ibiúna and the decreeing of AI-5 is marked by discussion of “immunity” due to requested in cassation of the mandates of deputies Márcio Moreira Alves and Hermano Alves who have positioned themselves against the invasion of UnB, confirming the victory of hardliner. In December, AI-5 is finally enacted and so the “recess” of the Legislature and the dismantling of the student movement ushering in the most dramatic period of the military dictatorship.