Portrayed in the box office success, Rubens Paiva had a more behind-the-scenes performance as a federal deputy, but gave a historic speech in the early hours of the 1964 coup.
The story of his life and death, in 1971, is a symbol of the necessary protection of democracy and shows how the arbitrariness of democracy impacted people who were not directly involved in the armed struggle, say historians interviewed by Sheet.
From the most left wing of the PTB (Brazilian Labor Party), Paiva was a reformist and nationalist, in the interpretation of Jason Tércio, writer and biographer of the politician.
In his speech on April 1, 1964, he called on the Brazilian population to support the legality of the then president’s government and condemned the coup attempt.
“My fellow countrymen, I especially address all the workers, all the students and all the people of São Paulo who are so unhappy with this fascist and coup government that is currently betraying its mandate and siding with the forces of reaction”, it started.
He defended basic reforms and asked the population to demonstrate in favor of Goulart in an orderly and peaceful manner.
Paiva was tortured and killed by the military dictatorship in 1971, after having his position as federal deputy revoked as soon as the coup occurred. The decision by the Brazilian government came just 25 years later, in 1996, during the administration of .
Born in 1929 in Santos, on the coast of São Paulo, he graduated as an engineer and was active in the student movement. He was elected deputy in 1962 and went into exile abroad in 1964, but after a few months he returned to Brazil. He started to live with his family in Rio de Janeiro, where he was kidnapped by the military.
The regime linked it to the receipt of correspondence from exiles. “They saw him as an intermediary and overestimated his role, at a time marked by the kidnapping of the Swiss ambassador [Giovanni Bucher, raptado por integrantes da Vanguarda Popular Revolucionária]”, says Tércio.
The deputy’s trajectory came back to the fore with the box office success of “”, a film that chronicles his disappearance and death. The work, which dates back to 2025, also addresses the struggle of Rubens’ wife, Eunice Paiva, for the State to recognize her husband’s death. It was based on a book of the same name by one of the politician’s sons, .
For Tércio and historians heard by the Sheetthe release of Walter Salles’ film comes at an opportune moment, as Brazil resumes the discussion about attacks on democracy, this time in a context starring military personnel close to the former president ().
On November 21, 2022, Bolsonaro and 36 other people were indicted, most of them military personnel. According to the PF, the plan involved the murder of the then-elected president, (), his vice-president, Geraldo Alckmin (PSB), and the minister of the (Supreme Federal Court) Alexandre de Moraes.
According to Rodrigo Patto Sá Motta, history professor at UFMG (Federal University of Minas Gerais), Paiva’s trajectory serves as a chance to rethink the risk of undemocratic experiences.
He states that the dictatorial context of the deputy’s death needs to be remembered and rejected. He also says that Paiva’s murder undermines the argument that only those who participated in the armed struggle were impacted.
“He wasn’t a communist, perhaps he wasn’t even a socialist. He defended national wealth, a very expensive flag at the time”, says Jason Tércio, who corroborates the historian’s interpretation.
Despite his symbolic speech on April 1st, Paiva was more of a behind-the-scenes politician, says Tércio. According to the Chamber of Deputies, the parliamentarian participated in seven permanent committees. He was responsible for two of them, one on foreign relations and the other on transport, communications and public works.
He was also a member of two parliamentary commissions of inquiry and vice-president of the CPI, which investigated the political activities of Ibad (Brazilian Institute of Democratic Action) and Ipes (Institute of Economic and Social Research).
The most notable participation was in the latter, says Matheus Augusto Sampaio, master in history from Ufop (Federal University of Ouro Preto). At the time, the parliamentarian was actively and questioningly involved in the commission, according to his biography.
“There was the CPI because it came to light that these institutes financed several campaigns for the 1962 elections. Their function was to destabilize the Goulart government and, later, they began to openly support what became known as the 1964 coup”, says Sampaio.
According to Samantha Quadrat, history professor at UFF (Universidade Federal Fluminense), the year in which Paiva was tortured and killed marks the escalation of violence in Rio de Janeiro, with a high concentration of dead and missing people.
The politician’s case had an impact on repression, which began to “establish other methods” and think about the need to have more private spaces for torture and deaths, says Quadrat.
“This was consolidated both in the ‘House of Death’ [centro clandestino em Petrópolis, no Rio de Janeiro]such as at the Cambahyba Plant, where the bodies of some dead and missing Brazilians were reportedly burned”, says the professor.
After being kidnapped from his home, tortured and killed in 1971, Rubens was considered missing for years. His death was confirmed with the work of , completed in 2014.
There are still open processes regarding the case. On Thursday (21), the Attorney General of the Republic, but said that the discussion should continue with another, broader action that questions the amnesty of those accused of the murder of the former deputy.
