HUMAN RIGHTS-BRAZIL: Dead Guerrilla Leader still Challenges Army

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jul 10 1996 (IPS) - A Special Commission on the Political Dead and Disappeared in Brazil, created by the government to do justice by the victims of the 1964-85 de facto military regime, is facing its toughest case.

Former army captain Carlos Lamarca became a guerrilla leader who headed an armed group that carried out several high-profile operations, such as kidnappings of diplomats aimed to get political prisoners freed and attacks on military quarters. He was killed by the army in September 1971 in the interior of the northeastern state of Bahia.

The army refuses to admit that Lamarca was executed rather than killed in combat — although that is exactly what is indicated by a forensic exam hidden since 1971 and published last weekend by the daily ‘O Globo’.

The Commission, made up of representatives of all the parties concerned, was created by a law passed in 1995 to clear up and certify the deaths of the 144 people who were disappeared for political reasons during the dictatorship, and compensate their families with indemnifications of 100,000 to 150,000 dollars.

The 1995 law recognises the State’s responsibility in the disappearances.

In its six months of activity, the Commission has ruled in favour of some 80 families. The immense majority of the decisions contradict police or military versions that the victims had committed suicide or died in armed conflict, establishing that their corpses showed signs of torture and execution.

The jurisdiction of the Commission was broadened in response to requests and denunciations by family members of victims whose deaths had been publicly admitted, but who were suspected of having been summarily executed without having offered resistance or after they had surrendered.

Lamarca’s case has triggered the most conflict between the military and civilian members of the Commission, because it involves an army deserter turned national hero, whose story became a box-office hit in a film released in 1994.

The representative of the armed forces on the Commission, General Osvaldo Gomes, has emphatically rejected the payment of compensation costs to the Lamarca family.

The Army Ministry stated this week in a communique that “the terrorist Lamarca died in combat with the legal forces, and his figure will always represent betrayal, desertion, terrorism and the breaking of an officer’s sacred vow.”

Gomes said there is a “silent repulsion” in the barracks, because the families of soldiers who died fighting the guerrillas have no right to compensation.

“Only military discipline is preventing a reaction,” warned the general, who charged that those who attempt to revise the army version of Lamarca’s death are trying to “demoralise the armed forces.”

Justice Minister Nelson Jobim tried to head off a confrontation by pointing out that the Commission, which is under his coordination, should not discuss whether Lamarca “was a hero or a deserter,” but that its role is to decide whether or not the State was responsible for his death.

The forensic report published by ‘O Globo’ indicates that Lamarca was killed by seven bullet wounds, three in his back, and that his corpse showed signs of physical abuse.

It has also been proven that the corpse that was handed over to the family was not Lamarca’s, because it had all its teeth, while the rebel leader had undergone plastic surgery in 1969 to change his appearance, which included putting in false teeth.

The commander of the operation that killed the rebel leader was Rio de Janeiro’s current secretary of Public Security General Nilton Cerqueira, whose version does not coincide with the forensic report.

Cerqueira refused to comment on that contradiction, limiting himself to repeating that Lamarca was a “terrorist” who “murdered” several people.

The fact that the document was hidden for 25 years is an indication that the armed forces did all they could to keep the incident under wraps.