There were two Air Force helicopters to do the job. Between January 1st and 10th, 1975, around 50 bodies of guerrillas were unearthed in the Araguaia forests and transported in black plastic bags on aircraft. The smell was disturbing.
The pilots put perfumed cotton wool in their masks to hold on. They flew to the Serra das Andorinhas, in the south of Pará, and there, Army agents, in civilian clothes, placed the bodies mixed with tires and set them on fire.
The report above was made by Air Force Colonel Pedro Corrêa Cabral, who was piloting one of the helicopters, as part of the investigative process number 1.23.001.000018/2014-55, of the MPF (Federal), regarding the concealment of bodies by the Army during the .
The Araguaia Guerrilla was an armed movement that took place from 1967 to the end of 1974, in the Amazon region along the Araguaia River, in which militants from the (Communist Party of Brazil) sought to implement a socialist revolution along the lines of the Cuban Revolution of 1959.
Colonel Pedro Cabral’s testimony refers to the so-called “Operation Cleaning”, carried out exactly 50 years ago, which had the objective of hiding bodies and all types of evidence of the Army’s action to exterminate the guerrillas.
“When the guerrillas ended, they came to the conclusion that there were no more guerrillas, so someone said: if we leave and leave it the way it is, there will be a lot of reporters, people from the press who will come here and dig around here and discover the bodies, then we will carry out the cleaning operation”, Cabral told the MPF.
According to the colonel, the Army agents who went in the helicopters knew exactly where they had buried the bodies in the forest. “They said: land here in this clearing, or land here on this road”, he said.
“I remember that once I landed on the road. Then the agents went into the forest. After an hour, 40 minutes, they came with the packages, put them in the helicopter. They came in a bag like the IML, a black plastic bag. Usually I would pick it up and go to the Serra das Andorinhas.”
Judge Solange Salgado, head of the 1st Federal Court of Justice in the DF, who led the taking of statements from peasants in the Araguaia region about the Army’s action in the guerrilla, heard from them that the so-called “Operation Cleaning” was conducted by men dressed in civilians, who told the locals they were “family members” who were recovering the bodies of their relatives.
These testimonies are part of the action that, in 2003, forced the Union to present documents about the conflict and point out the location of the graves of militants killed in the guerrilla. This decision, however, was never fulfilled.
The legal actions regarding the Guerrilha do Araguaia were archived, on the grounds that the acts carried out are covered by the , which grants forgiveness for political and related crimes that occurred between September 2, 1961 and August 15, 1979.
On December 15th, Minister Flávio Dino, rapporteur of an appeal filed by the MPF with the (Supreme Federal Court), considered that, since the alleged criminal action (concealment of corpses) continues over time, in acts subsequent to the validity of the law. The case will now be analyzed by the STF plenary.
When contacted to comment on the MPF’s accusations, based on the testimony of Colonel Pedro Corrêa Cabral, the Army Social Communication Center stated that “the Force does not comment on ongoing processes, conducted by other bodies, a procedure that has guided the relationship of respect between the Brazilian Army and other institutions of the Republic”.
On the other hand, family members of Araguaia guerrillas, who never had access to the bodies of their relatives, celebrated Dino’s decision. “It was a historic day for the families,” said Marta Costa, Helenira Resende’s niece, who disappeared in Araguaia in 1972.
“I remember the first time I was in Araguaia as part of a group of family members searching for the remains of our relatives”, said Marta. “I was impressed by the immensity of the forest, by the explicit poverty of that place.”
According to the guerrilla’s niece, the absence of her aunt’s body prolongs the family’s suffering over the years. “Aunt Nira’s disappearance is an indelible mark on our family, and this fight will be passed down from generation to generation,” he said.
“The feeling is that the anguish never passes, even today, 50 years after the end of the guerrilla war, the families remain unaware of the fate of the guerrillas, the Army archives have not been opened, those responsible have not been punished, the actions taken by the Brazilian State are dragging their feet in court.”
According to historian Luiz Antonio Dias, who studies dictatorships and democracies, the so-called “Operação Limpeza”, which sought to hide evidence of the Army’s action in the Araguaia Guerrilla, was not exclusive to the Brazilian military.
“The concealment of bodies was very common both in Brazil and in other dictatorships in the Southern Cone, including cooperation between military governments,” he said. “It is interesting to highlight that, in 2010, Brazil was condemned by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, precisely for not investigating these ‘forced disappearances’ and not identifying the bodies of the guerrillas in Araguaia.”
