The death under torture of , on October 25, 1975 and on the premises of DOI-Codi in São Paulo, helps to illustrate the gears of the country.
Like the journalist, at least another 113 people died or disappeared from 1964 to 1985 in custody in regime facilities, according to a survey by the Sheet from the profiles of the victims listed in volume 3 of the National Truth Commission report.
For this number, cases expressly related to the space of official addresses, such as barracks and police stations, and unofficial addresses, such as Casa de Itapevi, in São Paulo, where kidnapped PCB militants went, and Fazenda 31 de Março, used by delegate Sérgio Fleury, were considered.
Another 194 cases are linked to dictatorship bodies and agents, but in other locations, such as militant centers, victims’ homes and public areas – like what happened to the 67 dead in the Araguaia Guerrilla.
Of these, the report only analyzed cases that occurred during the official period of the dictatorship, totaling 405. Murders caused by the regimes of Argentina and Chile were also disregarded.
The Rio-SP axis holds most of the records of deaths and missing people, with 198 cases mapped; however, the episodes occurred in all regions of the country. In 36 cases there was no information about the place of execution or disappearance.
Simulating suicides, made public in the journalist’s case, was a common method. It was, for example, the official version of the death of the October 8 Revolutionary Movement (MR-8) militant José Gomes Teixeira, aged 29, on June 23, 1971, in the prisoner warehouse at the Galeão air base, in Rio. The photo and the forensic report show him hanging with a sheet.
Teixeira was arrested by agents from the Air Force Information and Security Center and tortured to reveal the whereabouts of Carlos Lamarca, a guerrilla fighter who led the armed struggle against .
Of the official facilities, the unit, located on Tutóia Street, where he died, was the most lethal. According to the CNV’s final report, at least they are. The report considered 29.
At the Rio de Janeiro agency, in Tijuca, there were approximately 48 victims, according to the CNV, 20 of which were duly registered in the victims’ profiles, according to the report’s analysis. In many cases, prisoners were transferred between units, with torture continuing in different locations.
That’s what happened to Sônia Maria de Moraes Angel Jones. Arrested with her then companion Antônio Carlos Bicalho Lana and taken to DOI-Codi in São Paulo, she was transferred to the Rio unit, where she was tortured and raped with a baton. After 48 hours there, the repression sent her back to the São Paulo agency, where she was executed under torture, having her breasts cut off.
Casa da Morte, in Petrópolis (RJ), established itself as the main clandestine center in operation during the period, with 16 of the 22 cases registered in this type of establishment.
“There are different reports about the House of Death, from the incineration of bodies, dismemberment, bodies that were thrown into the river and the sea, with their belly cut, with their fingers torn off, their teeth removed. These were techniques of torture and of emptying possible and eventual identification by DNA that the military used”, says lawyer Nadine Borges, who advised the National Truth Commission and chaired the commission in the Rio de Janeiro.
The address would have been the place where the couple Ana Rosa Kucinski and Wilson Silva disappeared, according to testimony from former sergeant Marival Dias Chaves do Canto, who worked at DOI-Codi. In his book about the dictatorship, former police chief Cláudio Guerra reports having participated in the incineration of the bodies of political prisoners.
The total number of victims related to repression devices could be even higher. The report identified 32 cases without information or with insufficient data to make such a relationship. In another 32, the victims were taken to hospitals or care centers practically dead.
For the professor at the Institute of International Relations at USP (University of São Paulo) and former member and coordinator of the CNV, Pedro Dallari, the main difficulty in mapping the cases by the commission was the lack of cooperation from , which did not make the files of the intelligence agencies available.
By the time of Herzog’s death, agents of the military dictatorship in Brazil had already executed at least 362 people since the establishment of the regime.
The peak of victims of the dictatorship occurred when the country was commanded by Emílio Garrastazu Médici, from 1969 to 1974, with at least 234 deaths. Among them, in January 1971, an episode portrayed in the Oscar-winning film “I’m Still Here”.
In 1975, when Herzog was killed, the country was already in the period of reopening, under the administration of Ernesto Geisel. After the episode, 41 more people became victims of the regime.
“His death shocked the country and the role of the press was decisive, because it had a question of identity. This certainly boosted the opening and what the Armed Forces did in this period and in subsequent periods”, says Nadine Borges.
The lawyer reinforces that the traumatic effect of the dictatorship still continues in the country due to the lack of punishment for torturers identified by the CNV. She criticizes the (Federal Supreme Court) for the lack of review of the .
“This year, the STF put military personnel who attacked the Constitution in the dock for the first time, but in a recent episode. In relation to the dictatorship, inertia continues.”
Collaborated Marcela Canavarro e Marina Pinhonifrom São Paulo
