The, killed at 18 during a demonstration against the shed of the Calabouço restaurant, will be included in the book of state heroes and heroines.
The measure, provided for in the bill of state deputy Dani Monteiro (), was approved by Alerj (Legislative Assembly of Rio) and now goes to the sanction of Governor Claudio Castro (PL).
Edson Luís was killed by the Military Police with a shot in the chest on March 28, 1968 and became a historic symbol of against political repression during the dictatorship.
“There was a confrontation between the police and the students, who held depredations. The PM responded with shots and killed high school student Edson Luís Lima Souto, 16, who was attending the Cooperative Education Institute,” he wrote Sheetat the time.
Born in Belém (PA), the high school was living in Rio to complete the second degree (current high school) and was murdered after military police broke into the student’s central restaurant, known as Calabouço, in the city center. He was one of 300 students who ate on the spot.
In the same year of death, the military regime decreed AI-5 (), which increased the repression and allowed the revocation of elected politicians.
“I want to refer to how much Edson was a hero, because he fought directly for democracy, education and the right to food,” said the deputy.
Deputies Carlos Minc (PSB) and Luiz Paulo (PSD) asked to be co -authors of the project. The two were at the demonstration in which the student was killed.
“I am an eyewitness of the history of this murder practiced by the dictatorship. The students took his body and brought to where today is the City Hall,” said Luiz Paulo, who was part of the student movement at the time.
Minc recalls that the protesters shouted “killed a student, what if it was a son of yours?”
“This took the middle class because, in fact, he was not committing any crime but having lunch in a restaurant,” he recalls.
Edson Luís’ body was carried by the students in a march through downtown Rio, until the then headquarters of the Legislative Assembly, where he was veiled. The autopsy was held in the middle of the demonstration. Death caused other protests in the country in the following days.
“Rio de Janeiro was once a city capable of stopping a Friday afternoon to bury a student killed by the PM,” wrote the journalist and writer in the book “” “
According to him, on the 29th, a Friday, 50 thousand people accompanied the body to the cemetery São João Batista, in Botafogo, in the South Zone.
In Cinelândia, the theaters Empire, Pathé and Odeon announced films that alluded to the tragedy: “The Night of the Generals”, “At Burn” and “Heart of Mourning”.
The book of the heroes of the state of Rio de Janeiro was created in 2010 for the inscription of “illustrious people who have their actions contributed to the defense, progress or development of the State, Brazil or humanity”.
