Torture documented in the dungeons of Minas Gerais

Minas 247 - The establishment of the Truth Commission in Brasília, less than two weeks ago, is expected to reveal a series of documents about the history of the years of repression in Brazil starting in 1964. One of them is the Linhares Letter, which contains testimonies from 12 former militants from Minas Gerais who were tortured in 1969.

The document details the torture sessions, including the names of the perpetrators.

Read the journalist's text. Sheila Oliveira, from the newspaper Nowadays:

A sad and violent chapter in the political history of Minas Gerais is beginning to unravel with the release of documents proving the violence committed by the military against left-wing activists in 1969, during the military dictatorship. Called the Linhares Letter, it details the history of a resistance group, the locations of torture, and the torturers. Hoje em Dia had access to the account, signed by 12 former tortured activists, which will be sent to the Truth Commission of the Presidency of the Republic and the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (MPF). 

The initiative is being spearheaded by Betinho Duarte, special advisor to the Truth Commission and the Amnesty Memorial of the OAB (Brazilian Bar Association) of Minas Gerais. The document is considered the first testimony of torture victims to be made public. The manuscript recounts that, on January 29, 1969, the police raided a safe house belonging to the leftist group Comando de Libertação Nacional (Colina), located at 120 Itacarambi Street, in the São Geraldo neighborhood of the capital city. 

At the time of the arrest, there was an exchange of gunfire, and the activist Maurício Vieira de Paiva was hit by two bullets. Then, the seven prisoners who were in the house had to stand against a back wall, "under intense beatings, to be shot by the police." Fearing the outcome of the operation, the commander of the operation, Luiz Soares da Rocha, prevented what would have been a massacre.

Aunt of brothers Ângelo Pezzuti and Murilo Pinto da Silva, members of Colina, retired Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) employee Ângela Maria Pezzuti recalls that, after passing through police stations in Belo Horizonte and the Army Police in Rio de Janeiro, her nephews were sent to the Linhares Penitentiary in Juiz de Fora. The institution, which housed common prisoners, had been vacated to receive all the political prisoners who were under the custody of the Military Justice system.

It was there that the prisoners united and produced the so-called "Linhares document," which, in 28 pages, reveals, in rich detail, all the torture suffered by each of the prisoners, cites the names of the torturers, and describes the methods used, such as the "parrot's perch," the paddle, and electric shocks. The text even denounces the death of João Lucas Alves, who was brutally tortured at the Robbery and Theft Police Station in Belo Horizonte. However, "the police officers claim that João Lucas committed suicide with his own pants." 

It was Ângela who first had access to the testimony, written in early 1970, and forwarded it to the then Minister of Justice, Alfredo Buzaid. According to her, in a meeting with the group of family members formed to support the prisoners and denounce the abuses, a priest named Viegas handed over the original manuscript. Ângela, who faced charges for the entry and exit of documents from the prison, claims that she was not the one who removed the account from the penitentiary and that she does not know who did. "The document circulated worldwide, surveillance in Linhares became more rigorous, and the original no longer exists," she said.