初代皇帝の心臓、ブラジルに帰還　「国賓」待遇

【ブラジリアＡＦＰ＝時事】ブラジルのポルトガルからの独立を宣言した初代皇帝ペドロ１世の心臓が２２日、独立２００年に合わせ一時帰還した。（写真はブラジル初代皇帝ペドロ１世の心臓が入ったつぼ。ブラジル・ブラジリアの空軍基地で）
　ペドロ１世の心臓は死後に体から取り出され、ポルトガル・ポルトの教会に安置された。心臓以外の遺体はブラジル・サンパウロの独立記念碑内部に埋葬されている。
　ポルト市はこのほど、９月７日のブラジル独立２００年記念行事のため、ペドロ１世の心臓をブラジルに貸し出すことに合意した。
　ガラス瓶に入った心臓は重量９キロの金色のつぼに納められており、通常は５重の鍵で守られている。ブラジルに貸し出される間、ポルト市の警察官が警護に当たる。
　ブラジルに到着した心臓は、国賓のような歓迎を受けた。
　外務省の儀典部門の責任者は、心臓は「ペドロ１世が生きているかのように、訪問中の外国首脳のように」扱われると話した。
　ペドロ１世はポルトガル王室の皇太子で、ナポレオン率いるフランス軍の侵攻から逃れ、９歳の時にブラジルに渡った。ポルトガルではペドロ４世とも呼ばれる。１８２２年９月７日にブラジルの独立を宣言し、初代皇帝となった。
　１８３１年に生前退位し、ポルトガルに帰国。１８３４年に結核で亡くなると、生前の希望通り心臓が取り出されポルトに安置された。
　ペドロ１世の心臓のブラジル「訪問」中のスケジュールは詰まっている。
　ジャイル・ボルソナロ大統領は２３日、心臓のために軍による式典を執り行う。
　その後、心臓は外務省庁舎で１７日間にわたり一般公開される。
　１０月の大統領選で再選を目指すボルソナロ大統領は、心臓を利用してナショナリズムをあおっていると非難されている。
　ボルソナロ氏は、独立記念日に自身の支持者らによるデモ行進と軍事パレードも計画している。
　心臓のパレードは、軍事独裁政権（１９６４～８５年）が１９７２年にペドロ１世の心臓以外の遺体を、ポルトガルからブラジルに再埋葬した当時を思い起こさせるという声も上がっている。ボルソナロ氏は、軍事独裁政権を尊敬していることを公言している。
　ペドロ１世やブラジル独立に関する著書がある歴史家のリリア・シュワルツ氏は「心臓を国賓のように歓迎するなどボルソナロの茶番だ」と述べた。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/08/24-14:01）

Nearly two centuries after it was cut from his corpse and stashed in formaldehyde, the heart of Emperor Pedro I, who declared Brazil's independence from Portugal, returned Monday for politically charged commemorations of the South American nation's 200th birthday.
Dom Pedro, a beloved figure in both Brazilian and Portuguese history, has been divided between the two countries in death -- his heart enshrined in a church in Porto, Portugal, and the rest of his remains in an independence monument in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
But after Porto city officials agreed to return the heart on loan, it arrived in Brazil for the country's bicentennial independence celebrations on September 7.
The heart, which is kept in a glass jar in a golden urn, arrived with all the pomp and circumstance of a state visit.
It will be treated as if Dom Pedro I were alive and with us... just as if it were a state visit by a foreign leader, said Alan Coelho, chief of ceremonial protocol at the Brazilian foreign ministry.
Dom Pedro fled to Brazil with his family as a nine-year-old boy when Napoleon's army invaded Portugal in 1807.
He stayed behind to rule the then-colony as regent when his father, King Joao VI, returned home to the increasingly restless mother country in 1821.
Facing pressure to rein in the political autonomy the colony had enjoyed, Pedro I instead declared it an independent country on September 7, 1822, and became its first emperor.
But no sooner had he thrown off Portuguese rule and established Brazil as a constitutional empire than turbulence across the Atlantic forced him to return to Portugal, where his younger brother had usurped the throne and was attempting to return the country from a constitutional government to absolute monarchy.
Pedro I, who is known in Portugal as Pedro IV, abdicated in 1831 and sailed back to Portugal, leading an army into Porto in support of the constitutionalists' ultimately successful struggle.
After his death of tuberculosis in 1834, he was celebrated in both Brazil and Portugal as a champion of liberal causes and representative rule.
At his request, his heart was removed and kept in Porto, in gratitude to its people for their support.
Today the heart of this national hero, the first emperor of Brazil, returns home to our soil, Defense Minister Paulo Sergio Nogueira said at a ceremony to welcome the organ at an air base in Brasilia.
This important relic represents the bravery, passion and above all the immeasurable strength of our first emperor.
- 'Bolsonaro farce' -
The heart has a busy agenda for its visit.
President Jair Bolsonaro will hold an official ceremony for it Tuesday with military honors.
The nine-kilogram (20-pound) urn will then go on display for 17 days at the foreign ministry headquarters, Itamaraty Palace.
Bolsonaro, who is campaigning to win reelection in October, has faced accusations of fanning the flames of nationalism with the festivities around the heart.
The far-right leader is also planning a big rally by supporters and a military parade on independence day.
Critics said parading the heart around was reminiscent of when Brazil's 1964-1985 military dictatorship -- which Bolsonaro openly admires -- brought the rest of Pedro I's body back from Portugal, in 1972.
This is going to be a farce by Bolsonaro, welcoming this heart like a visiting dignitary, said historian Lilia Schwarcz, who has written books on Pedro I and Brazilian independence.
We should ask ourselves what kind of way this is to think about history -- a dead history stuck in time, like the stopped organ of a deceased emperor.
Others found humor in the occasion.
Since the independence process began with the Napoleonic invasion, I suggest they also bring over Bonaparte's penis, quipped fellow historian Luiz Antonio Simas.
Kept under quintuple lock and key at the Our Lady of Lapa church in Porto, the heart will be under the watchful eye of a police officer sent by the Portuguese city, before being returned on September 8.