Bridge Honestino Guimares

The Bridge Costa e Silva (named after the 2nd president of Brazil’s military dictatorship) in Brasília, Brazil, was inaugurated on February 6 1976, by the military president Ernesto Geisel, connecting the ‘Lago Sul’ neighbourhood to Brasília’s downtown. Its name has been targeted by local politicians and civil society groups since the end of the dictatorship. After the establishment of the National Truth Commission in 2011, a body responsible for investigating human rights abuses committed by the dictatorship, popular initiatives to rename the bridge intensified. However, the Federal District’s Legislative Chamber only approved a bill renaming the bridge in 2015. The chosen name was Honestino Guimarães, a university student leader who went missing after being kidnapped by the dictatorship. However, antagonistic voices in society led to lawsuits that revoked the renaming. Until 2022, the Bridge was renamed several times, whether by the federal government or public initiatives, but the name of Honestino Guimarães was eventually consolidated by law with Bill 1967/2021, resignifying the story of the bridge.