Although remembered for its labor rights and the modernization of the Brazilian economy, the Estado Novo, which ended 80 years ago, was also marked by repression and torture of opponents of the then president.
The period began in 1937, with the self-coup and the granting of a government that centralized power in the Executive, authorized the closure of and suppressed individual and political freedoms. The government also authorized the death penalty, including in cases of political demonstrations, in the wake of the fight against communists, used as a pretext for institutional rupture.
These episodes were the target of the (Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry) opened in 1946 to investigate the crimes of the period and, more recently, of the National Truth Commission, which operated from 2012 to 2014. None of the investigations, however, led to the public agents involved being held accountable.
An emblematic case was the shooting of eight members of the integralist uprising who invaded the Guanabara Palace in 1938, in an unsuccessful coup attempt.
Those captured were already unarmed and were killed in the palace itself, in the back. The report is part of the memoirs of General Góis Monteiro, then Chief of the Army General Staff under Vargas. There was no investigation into the crime.
Although there was no centralized police that worked for repression, the state forces were controlled by the interveners appointed by Getúlio. The search for the protection and maintenance of the regime was the keynote of the relationship between the president and the heads of states. Therefore, police stations were the main points of torture and repression during the regime.
In Rio de Janeiro, at the time, was the headquarters of the Special Police, which looked after the president and was also known as a politician, for capturing and pursuing enemies. The Special Police force was spread across the country.
One of the main names in repression under Vargas is . The soldier was recruited by the then president in 1930, to join the provisional government. He became an inspector of the Civil Guard of the Federal District and later became head of the political police.
An instrument to legitimize repression was the National Security Court, created after the 1935 Communist Intentona and linked to the Military Justice. With the beginning of the Estado Novo, the court gained autonomy in relation to the STM (Superior Military Court) and adopted a summary procedure to speed up the analysis of cases. The court prosecuted more than 10,000 people and sentenced 4,100 during the .
After the end of the Estado Novo with amnesty for those involved in crimes, the first investigation attempt was a CPI, led by General Euclides de Oliveira Figueiredo (UDN-DF), father of João Figueiredo, who would be president of the country during the military dictatorship. He was arrested and convicted of the robbery of the Guanabara Palace in 1938.
Opened in April 1946, the commission was closed in September of the same year without reaching concrete conclusions, despite having collected testimonies from several people involved in the dictatorship. In November, Euclides Figueiredo asked for the installation of a new commission, which collected more statements.
Journalist David Nesser, author of reports in the magazine O Cruzeiro, used testimonies from targets of repression to the commission to describe torture methods used at the time.
Nesser cites the use of blowtorches to burn and tear off parts of the body, wooden stilettos inserted under fingernails, electric chairs and torture masks, as well as beatings and murders in police stations. It was also common practice, according to the journalist, to burn prisoners with cigarette butts or beat them.
Carlos Marighella, who would become famous as an opponent of the military dictatorship (1964-1985), testified at the commission. According to the annals of the Legislature, he described beatings with rubber pipes, burns and the removal of the soles of his feet.
As of July 1948, the commission no longer appears in Legislative documents — it also ended without a report.
More than 60 years later, the National Truth Commission represented another attempt to investigate the Estado Novo, albeit in a lateral way — the body’s main objective was to investigate the military dictatorship established in 1964.
The most emblematic case revealed by the commission on the Estado Novo was the arrest, torture and death of Japanese immigrants, targets of racism and without any relation to the country’s struggle in the They were also targets of confiscation of assets determined by decree of 1942.
Only last year did the government apologize for its actions against Japanese immigrants, but no authorities were held accountable.
Marcos Napolitano, republican professor at (São Paulo), says that Vargas’ authoritarian cycle is well studied, but believes that, in terms of collective memory, there is an erasure of the most violent aspect of the regime.
For him, an image of Getúlio was consolidated that was closer to the second government (1951-1954), when he was confronted by right-wing military and civilians. This factor would have attenuated the memory of the Vargas dictatorship, especially among sectors linked to the left, even though this political field was the main one affected by the repression of the Estado Novo.
Getúlio’s suicide in 1954 and the more democratic nature of his second government helped to consolidate this perception, he says, adding that the concept of human rights was still fragile at the time.
“I think that more than punishing, since at this point those institutionally and personally responsible for repression and torture no longer exist, it is necessary to understand how the first Vargas government, the Estado Novo in particular, helped to institutionalize authoritarianism and the torture of political prisoners as State policy. There are many links between that repression of the 1930s/1940s and subsequent violence that need to be researched.”
Historian Cláudia Viscardi, from UFJF (Federal University of Juiz de Fora), reiterates that it would be difficult to provide any type of transitional justice or punishment to those responsible for violations of the Estado Novo due to the low priority given to the topic on the political agenda and the fact that historical sources have been lost.
She highlights the influence of the work of the DIP (Department of Press and Propaganda) on the imaginary regarding Vargas and cites as examples symbols, street names and images that still contribute to the mythification of the president.
As shown by SheetFilinto Müller himself has in Brazil.
“What gets worse in Filinto’s case is that the academic analyzes themselves are few. And because he is from a state like Mato Grosso, which has had few national political leaders over time, his praise is also related to elements of regionalism”, he says.
