“Santarém acima de tudo”: o processo de cassação do prefeito Elias Pinto e do vice-prefeito Joaquim de Oliveira Martins (1966-1968)

Abstract

The impeachment of Elias Ribeiro Pinto and Joaquim Martins was one of many political events in Santarém that resonate to this day. Thus, based on the Jornal de Santarém newspaper and the police investigation, this work seeks to analyze this political event based on these sources. However, this work must also consider the participation of politicians in the MDB and ARENA parties in order to problematize their scale. Therefore, based on the analysis of documentary sources, it is clear that ARENA's influence in the municipality and its interference in politics were unique in placing the city on the list of municipalities in a National Security Area. Thus, this event was a result of the bipartisanship policy implemented after 1965, which, as a consequence, also targeted the arbitrary actions of the Civil-Military Dictatorship. Furthermore, as a culmination of the impeachment of the aforementioned officials, an event occurred in 1968 that would further shock Santarém's political establishment in the attempt to reinstate the ousted slate. In this incident, people were shot by the state military police. This resulted in the municipality having, from that moment onward, appointed rather than elected mayors, a move that would only be resumed in 1985, with the return of democracy.