The revelations contained in the collection of Colonel Cyro Etchegoyen, a soldier appointed as responsible for the House of Death, where opponents of the dictatorship were tortured and killed, put pressure on the Brazilian State to continue investigations into the crimes committed by agents of repression, say historians.
Etchegoyen’s collection consists of 3,000 pages, divided into 23 folders, kept confidential by him until his death in 2012. They were public documents from the Army collection, which were stolen by the colonel.
The documents detail British collaboration in the dictatorship, indicate a new victim of rape and show cases in which military personnel acted like criminals. In this context, experts reinforce the demand for the opening of . The revelations were published by.
Among the paperwork is the “Information Internship Report in England”, which narrates an internship carried out by four Brazilian soldiers in the European country, at the invitation of the British government.
From December 14 to 19, 1970, Colonel Milton Machado Martins was there, as well as Etchegoyen himself. From February 15th to 26th, lieutenant colonels Moacyr Coelho and Milton Masselli Duarte went there. The document, stamped with the secret seal, indicates that Brazilians learned torture and interrogation methods there.
Etchegoyen was head of the counterintelligence section of the CIE (Army Information Center) from 1971 to 1974.
Author of the book “State Secret: The British Government and Torture in Brazil (1969-1976)”, historian João Roberto Martins Filho, professor at UFSCar (Federal University of São Carlos), says that the British collaboration was already known, although he never discovered a similar document, proving in detail how the partnership came about.
Martins Filho claims that the British from MI-5, the United Kingdom’s secret service, taught the “Five Techniques”, later used by Brazilians, according to reports from the victims.
“The document shows an indication that these methods must be carried out without the use of violence, a version propagated for a long time by the British”, says Martins Filho. “But those tortured always said that there was no more devastating torture technique.”
The English’s instructions included putting a hood on the kidnapped person as soon as possible, leaving people standing on tiptoe for hours, serving terrible meals at odd hours — for example, serving breakfast right after lunch —, total control of the light — alternating light and darkness — and activating persistent noises, such as the sound of leaking gas. There was also the so-called “refrigerator”, the maintenance of a powerful air conditioner at a freezing temperature.
The historian claims that the United Kingdom mastered torture techniques because of the repression of the anti-colonial struggle in Malaysia. Later, the methods were applied against the IRA, the Irish Republican Army, which advocated the separation of Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and its union with the Republic of Ireland. A month after the internship in England, Casa da Morte was created, a clandestine torture and murder center in , in the mountainous region of Rio de Janeiro.
The ICL Notícias report shows that Etchegoyen kept other secrets from the dictatorship in his collection, such as the rape of jewelry seller Marilene dos Santos Mello.
On December 19, 1969, she was kidnapped by members of the CIE and raped at least twice, in an Army vehicle and in a property in Copacabana, used as a base for the ALN (Ação Libertadora Nacional). Mello lived in Tijuca and was the mother of three children. The townhouse where he lived welcomed ALN militants when they arrived from training in Cuba.
On another front, Etchegoyen’s collection reveals another known practice of the military during the dictatorship: robbery. Military personnel who were unhappy with the practice reported to Etchegoyen that colleagues stole items from properties where they were carrying out tasks. They took everything: pens, bookshelves, money and even cars.
For Rodrigo Patto Sá Motta, history professor at UFMG (Federal University of Minas Gerais), the looting contrasts with the idealized view that part of the population still has regarding members of the Armed Forces, a belief propagated by the former president.
“People create an image of the Armed Forces as unassailable institutions. How can the theft be justified? Some of these people got rich that way”, says Motta. “There were even cases of blackmail, like ‘I know where your son is, but I need you to give me so much.’
The historian says that the Brazilian State should resume investigations into crimes committed by agents of repression. According to him, there is much to be clarified beyond the conclusions of the National Truth Commission, which was closed in 2014.
In this aspect, historian and sociology professor at UFRJ (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro) Lucas Pedretti criticizes the government. Pedretti states that the PT member did not create a permanent body to investigate crimes during the dictatorship, a recommendation from the Truth Commission.
He reaffirms the need to open the Armed Forces archives, a long-standing demand from experts, relatives of victims and activists. The Armed Forces, however, say that the files no longer exist because they were destroyed. In light of the revelations from Etchegoyen’s collection, Pedretti says that thinking about new forms of foreign intervention is not a conspiracy theory.
“Other forms of intervention are a concrete fact, knowing that Trump understands that he is the world’s policeman. Interference has already happened in Brazil, for example, with tariffs”, he says.
