From 1964 onwards, much remains to be clarified. Brazil is still in mourning.

By Gilvandro Filho, from Journalists for Democracy - In August 2014, an old torturer decided to speak. And his revelation was more than impactful. What he "unveiled" was more than a confession of guilt; it was a ratification of the type of crime that was committed throughout the military dictatorship that lasted 21 years and left Brazil with a huge, still unhealed wound. The military officers who were in power and who carried that insane and bloody ideological war to its ultimate consequences were not just genocidal murderers. They committed crimes against humanity.

According to the testimony of the veteran torturer, police officer Cláudio Guerra, 12 names were removed from the list of political prisoners who disappeared during the military regime. A former Civil Police delegate from Espírito Santo, Guerra spoke with authority. He was also a former agent of the National Information Service, the infamous SNI, and was responsible for one of the most barbaric acts of the dictatorship: the bodies of 12 political prisoners executed in the dungeons of the repression were thrown into the furnaces of the Cambaíba Sugar Mill in Campos, in the North Fluminense region.

Fernando Augusto Santa Cruz de Oliveira, from Pernambuco, was one of those prisoners whose bodies ended up charred. He and his fellow Pernambuco native, Eduardo Collier Filho, were arrested on Carnival Saturday in 1973, on a street corner in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro, where they met to "cover a spot" marked by the Marxist-Leninist Popular Action (APML), of which they were members.

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The revelation made by the former torturer Guerra was the first news the families had received about the two young students since their disappearance. It had been 41 years of absolute silence, of denied information, of drama for the families.

The saga of the Santa Cruz family has become a book – "Where Is My Son?" (Chico de Assis, Cristina Tavares, Gilvandro Filho, Glória Brandão, Jodeval Duarte and Nagib Jorge Neto, Ed. Cepe) – now in its second edition. More than a plea, the title is a powerful denunciation made by Fernando's mother, Elzita, whom her friends affectionately call Dona Zita. A warrior in the truest sense of the word. A Brazilian heroine.

Dona Zita never wavered, even in the face of all sorts of threats and disrespect. She knocked on the doors of military barracks, sought out authorities in Brasília, demanded information at police stations, and spoke out to the press. She had the help of many personalities from politics, the Catholic Church, intellectuals, and the legal community. Marching with her in this fight for news of Fernando's whereabouts were names like Ulysses Guimarães, Marcos Freire, Paulo Brossard, Fernando Lyra, Jarbas Vasconcelos, Dom Helder Câmara, Dom Paulo Evaristo Arns, Sobral Pinto, and JG de Araújo Jorge. Even a figure from the military regime, Marshal Juarez Távora, tried to intervene and obtain information, without success.

The incineration of the bodies at the Cambaíba Plant finally brought to light news that the families of these 12 political prisoners – until then considered political disappearances – could at least find support in saying "my son died." Burying the bodies, however, remained impossible due to the brutal circumstances of the act.

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The account given by police officer Cláudio Guerra revealed the extent of what the torturers and perpetrators of genocide were capable of doing during those dark times, known as the "years of lead." "The bodies arrived in black plastic bags tied with ropes. Nobody suspected we were burning people. The activity was disguised because there were always employees feeding the furnaces with firewood. The strong odor of the vinasse masked the smell," the former police chief told the press at the time.

Cláudio Guerra, in the same interview, defended the self-criticism of the Armed Forces: "What happened is that we made mistakes and now we have to confess and ask forgiveness from the nation. Today, the idea is different, the armed forces are different, there is a new mentality, but in the past there was the mistake. We have to confess these mistakes and try to change. My confession of participation is to try to help clarify what really happened. This is a story that needs to be cleared up. That's why I'm confessing. The others involved are not exposing themselves for fear of prison. Other people can also help tell this story."

Even within the Truth Commission, few followed Claudio Guerra's suggestion, and almost no one offered a mea culpa. This began with Colonel Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustra, an idol of President Jair Bolsonaro and the only person convicted of torture committed during the dictatorship. Even fewer confessed torturers came forward to shed light on the history of other disappeared persons.

With Jair Bolsonaro's election campaign, the self-criticism of torturers was left in the dust. Anti-communism and hate speech became the themes of new mantras. The candidate himself threatened to machine-gun his political opponents – literally, the "petralhas" (a derogatory term for supporters of the Workers' Party) – which encouraged his followers to spread terror in the streets throughout the campaign.

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Once elected, Bolsonaro's first action was to reignite the fight against disarmament, which he did by issuing a decree easing the buying and selling of weapons. He assembled a military government, with a team of generals whose numbers are unparalleled even in the dictatorship itself. He encouraged – personally and through his three sons who wield considerable influence in the government – ​​the resurgence of anti-communism, seeking ministers nominated by figures such as the far-right "philosopher" and astrologer Olavo de Carvalho. He plunged Brazil into an ideological war.

By recommending the commemoration, or "remembrance," of the April 1st military coup and the historical revision of what he prematurely calls the "March 31st revolution," Bolsonaro is not only placing the country in political conflict. He is endangering Brazil and jeopardizing our democracy. He is inciting those who dream of the past, of torture, of political prisoners, of war between one side and the other.

Bolsonaro, more than that, disrespects the struggle of hundreds of fathers, mothers, children, siblings, relatives, and friends of political disappearances. Like families such as that of Dona Zita Santa Cruz.

What happened in Brazil must never happen again. Especially since many atrocities and crimes remain unsolved. Brazilian memory is still in mourning regarding this matter.