After the government is due to the delay in recreating the Special Commission on Political Dead and Missing (CEMDP) –– and the Petista’s statement that the dictatorship the year 2025 is promising for the subject in the country, says the president of the collegiate, Prosecutor Eugênia Gonzaga.
Designed again for the position he had already held from 2014 to 2019 at CEMDP, Eugenia lists examples that the tide has changed, and associates the tendency to the success of the film, about the history of the family of former Deputy Rubens Paiva, murdered by the dictatorship, especially Eunice Paiva, his wife, played in the feature by. The movie and the actress compete on March 2.
“It is obvious that this came to help leverage the work of the commission, because now everyone has heard. It talks about rectifying death certificates, [dizem]’Ah, I saw the scene’ [em que Eunice recebe a certidão de Rubens Paiva]. People already understand much easier than we are talking, “says Eugenia.
The rectification to which it refers is one of the effects of the wave: in December, the CNJ (National Council of Justice) determining that dictatorship victims certificates must record, as mortis cause, “non -natural, violent death caused by Brazilian state “.
The CEMDP reopening of the case of the disaster that killed the former president, also used this impulse, and should be followed by the analysis of equally foggy episodes, such as the death of the educator, whose body was found in an elevator pit in 1971 –The official version, by many discredited, is that it was an accident.
Eugênia also celebrates the way of punishing dictatorship crimes despite the amnesty law and says that the interest of parliamentarians has grown in allocating amendments to fund CEMDP work, which has no budget.
What is the position of Mrs. in relation to the reopening of the case of JK’s death?
What we are looking at first is the formal aspects. There was a doubt about the fact that the period established for this type of analysis has already passed. We understand that this aspect is overcome, because it is a request for historical purposes only, it has no compensation. I find it perfectly possible to reopen.
Even so, there are family members. In the case of JK, there is the driver too [Geraldo Ribeiro]. If you end up understanding it was not an accident, then we have two victims there. Therefore the preliminary action to hear the two families.
Would a possible opposition of a relative be an impediment to continue the case?
At first not. We are talking, first of all, memory and truth, but about victims. All our procedures are based on families to follow due diligence, make the last decision. We never had a case of family refusal regarding searches. If so, the commission will deliberate about it.
Can new steps occur?
They can, because there is nothing judged about it. And even if there was… it may be that no more criminal or repair effects. But a state body created for this purpose is not prevented from analyzing. And even more so that there was a request, and it is not a single one. We have at least five or six requests for reopening cases that have never been analyzed, neither by the Special Commission nor by the National Truth Commission.
Of the [educador] Is Anísio Teixeira one of them? Did you deliberate about this too?
There is already a procedure on the DO, it is a very similar situation.
We never deliberate. In fact, who deliberated was the previous commission of the Bolsonaro period. They archived everything. And the case of Anísio Teixeira filed because it was not required by the family, but by the torture group never again. But our understanding is also different. You just need to be required by the family when you have indemnity interest. For historical purposes, the legislation does not require that it is required by the family.
Is there the possibility of changing JK’s death certificate to say that he was a state victim?
We argue that yes. The committee on the dead and missing dead systematized all those then recognized as victims of the dictatorship in a report – that 360 – the National Truth Commission departs forward and recognizes others and reaches the official number of 434 victims of the dictatorship.
As the special commission has not been extinguished, if we come to the conclusion that there are other victims, we can vote and recognize these victims. We want to include in a new report to 2026. If so voted by the commission, it is certainly [JK] You will be entitled to rectify your death certificate as a victim of the dictatorship.
I suppose since the recreation of the commission, and especially now with this disclosure of the JK case, resistance has emerged.
You will find who speaks against. This is how they extinguished the commission, saying that she had nothing else to do. Of course we are against it, there is an opinion from AGU in the process that reopened the commission, saying that it still has its goal. We understand that the Commission continues to have legitimacy, ownership and obligation to act in these cases.
The commotion caused by the movie “I’m still here” helps in issues like this? To what extent do you count on this to give a gas in these cases?
Look, it’s been amazing. The Nilmário [Miranda, chefe da Assessoria Especial de Defesa da Democracia, Memória e Verdade do Ministério dos ] Say that, I say the same thing. It seems that this is the year of the memory of truth in the country.
When the commission was extinguished, it has already generated a commotion. Several sectors of society were against, even those who were not even so affectionate to the theme. It was very clear that it was an arbitrary act of the extinction of the commission. And there was already a great mobilization of families, civil society, for the reinstallation of the commission.
And then, luckily, I say it was really lucky, a month after the commission was reinstalled in 2024, the movie bursts. It has this wonderful receptivity, and it is obvious that it came to help leverage the work of the commission, because now everyone has heard. Speaks of rectification of death certificates, [dizem]”Ah, I saw the scene” [em que Eunice recebe a certidão de Rubens Paiva]. People already understand much easier than we are talking.
I would cite two examples that demonstrate this good wave of the movie, this much bigger opening. One is the fact that, after the movie, to cases that have not been dispatched for years []. Even Flávio Dino puts this in his reason for deciding.
And another interesting point is that the Ministry of Human Rights does not have its own budget and needs to dig policies related to its themes in other ministries. The commission has to rely on parliamentary amendments. In the first phase in which I chaired the commission, we have already managed to do what we did thanks to parliamentary amendments, which half a dozen deputies contributed. Today, we did the same job of raising amendments, and almost 20 deputies and senators appeared, we were even sought by parliamentarians wanting to help with work. I credit this to this good repercussion of the film and the understanding it has been able to cause.
Eugênia Augusta Gonzaga, 55
Born in Guaranésia (MG), holds a master’s degree in Constitutional Law from PUC-SP. Regional Prosecutor of the Republic in SP, presides over the second time the Special Commission on Political Dead and Missing (the first ticket was between 2014 and 2019, being dismissed in the Bolsonaro government, which extinguished the collegiate, recreated by Lula)
