Just over three months before the 50th anniversary of his death, a report from (CEMDP) states that the former president was killed in 1976 by the dictatorship, and not the victim of a car accident, as concluded at the time and.
Prepared by historian Maria Cecília Adão, rapporteur of the case of JK’s death at CEMDP, the text is being examined by the other councilors of the collegiate and will be voted on at the group’s next meeting – a meeting with this purpose was scheduled for April 24 in São Paulo, but was postponed because the members asked for more time to study the document, which has more than 5,000 pages, including annexes.
The report must be approved by the commission’s advisors, the report found. A twist on a case that has been controversial for so long, the measure is significant due to the fact that CEMDP is a State body – established by law in 1995, in the government, and currently has technical-administrative support from the Ministry of Human Rights.
Its purpose is to recognize people who died or disappeared due to political activities from 1961 to 1988, seek to locate their bodies and issue opinions on the requests made by their families.
the decision to re-examine the case of JK’s death kept alive a soap opera that has mobilized versions and inflamed political currents since the former president died on August 22, 1976.
That Sunday, the Opala in which the politician from Minas Gerais was traveling, driven by his driver and friend Geraldo Ribeiro, was hit by a trailer on Via Dutra. Out of control, the vehicle crossed the median and entered the opposite lane, being destroyed by the collision. Ribeiro also died in the disaster.
Several investigations sought to elucidate why the driver lost control of the Opala. Those conducted by the dictatorship concluded that just before the crash the car was hit by a Cometa bus while trying to overtake it. It was the same verdict from an external committee of the Chamber of Deputies in 2001 and the Truth Commission in 2014. According to this version, it was an accident.
Other investigations concluded that JK was, in fact, the victim of a political attack, gathering evidence that there was no collision between the Opala and the bus and that the car went out of control due to some external action — mechanical sabotage or even a gunshot or poisoning by the driver.
This was the conclusion of the State Truth Commissions —supported by a working group with researchers from USP and Mackenzie universities— and .
As found out by the SheetMaria Cecília Adão’s report follows the same line and also has as its reference a civil inquiry conducted by the MPF (Federal Public Ministry) for six years, from 2013 to 2019 – concluded, therefore, after the final report of the Truth Commission –, but only released in 2021, considered the most complete investigation on the topic.
The MPF investigation ruled out that there had been a collision between the bus and the Opala, but concluded that it was “impossible to confirm or rule out” the hypothesis of an attack, “since there are not enough material elements to point out the cause of the accident or to explain the loss of control of the car”.
Public Prosecutor Paulo Sérgio Ferreira Filho wrote that “there were severe flaws in the investigations carried out by the Brazilian State.” Among them, he mentions the cases of manslaughter against Josias Oliveira, the driver of the Cometa bus that allegedly crashed into Opala – he ended up acquitted –, and the absence, in the medical examinations at the time, of a toxicological report for substances other than alcohol, to find out whether there may have been intoxication or poisoning of Geraldo Ribeiro.
But the “key piece” to understanding what happened, which constitutes the “greatest contribution that the (…) civil investigation brought to the case”, according to prosecutor Ferreira Filho, was an examination conducted by engineer Sergio Ejzenberg, a transport specialist, invited by the MPF to examine reports made in 1976 and 1996 by the Carlos Éboli Institute of Criminalistics (ICCE), in Rio —which supported the official thesis of the bus collision in Opala– and prepare a new study on the accident.
Ejzenberg’s work, which includes 3D videos simulating the disaster, technically demolished previous reports and rejected the hypothesis that there had been a collision with the bus before the Opala went out of control. According to him, the conclusions of the Truth Commission “were based on useless reports from the ICCE, and were therefore erroneous conclusions”.
CEMDP’s reexamination of the case did not include new investigations. Maria Cecília Adão’s report compiles all previous work – with emphasis on the most recent, that of the MPF – and presents a legal framework to support the thesis of State responsibility, based on the theory of “in dubio pro victima” (when in doubt, in favor of the victim), defended by jurists such as Gilberto Bercovici (professor of law at USP) and Argentine Luis Moreno Ocampo (former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court).
The report highlights the political context of the death. Favorite in the presidential elections that would have taken place in 1965 if there had not been a coup, JK voted for Castello Branco in the indirect election in Congress that made the general the first president-dictator, believing that the military would maintain the direct election the following year. Shortly after the coup, still in 1964, the miner, who was a senator, had his mandate revoked and his political rights suspended for a decade.
In 1976, he was one of the leaders of the Frente Amplio, a group opposing the dictatorship. Supported by the USA, Operation Condor, a coordinated action between dictatorships in the Southern Cone to persecute political opponents, planned to eliminate political leaders in the region. In a letter from Manuel Contreras (chief of the Chilean secret police and head of Condor) to João Figueiredo, then head of the SNI and future president-dictator, JK’s name was mentioned along with that of the Chilean diplomat and activist as threats to the stability of governments in the region. Letelier was murdered by the Chilean dictatorship in an attack in Washington in 1976.
A paradigm to be followed in the JK case is that of the fashion designer, whose death, in a car accident in 1976, CEMDP brought evidence of having been responsible for the repression. In Zuzu’s case, one of the commission did not recognize the family’s request to be considered a victim of the State, but a subsequent investigation, with new reports and witnesses, stated that the accident was in fact an attack.
Unlike Zuzu, the possible recognition of JK as a political victim will not lead to financial compensation for his family, because the reopening of the case occurred after the deadlines for requests set by the company had expired (there were no requests from the family in this regard either). The reopening of the case was justified with the argument of clarifying the historical truth.
Upon concluding that JK had an unnatural, violent death, caused by the Brazilian State due to political persecution, the collegiate may also approve that his death certificate and that of Geraldo Ribeiro be rectified to record this conclusion – as has been the case for a year and a half with an agreement between CEMDP and the CNJ (National Council of Justice).
When contacted, rapporteur Maria Cecília Adão said that she would not speak, as it was an issue still under deliberation by the committee.
Among the seven counselors, the report prepared by her must be approved with at least five votes: her own and those of Diva Santana (relatives of the dead and missing), Natália Bonavides (Chamber of Deputies), Vera Paiva (daughter of Rubens Paiva, representative of civil society) and prosecutor Eugênia Gonzaga (president of the collegiate).
The representative of the Federal Public Ministry, Ivan Marx, and the representative of the Ministry of Defense, Rafaelo Abritta, have been the most reluctant to reopen the case since the beginning. When contacted, they declined to give an interview.
Last year, recognizing victims of the dictatorship without a solid legal basis could cause the risk of the action being challenged in court later. One to gain access to archives of the Armed Forces during the dictatorship caused discomfort among the collegiate.
Behind the scenes, Abritta expressed fear that, with the likely approval of the JK case report, the commission could be used politically in an election year.
Abritta, however, should not even vote. He is leaving the commission for an academic period abroad. The Ministry of Defense has already appointed his successor, Bruno Correia Cardoso, chief of staff of the department’s General Secretariat, who has not yet assumed the role.
