RIGHTS-BRAZIL: Police Chief-Designee Accused of Torturing Priest

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jun 14 1999 (IPS) - Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso drew fire after naming Joao Batista Campelo, accused of torturing a Roman Catholic priest in 1970, as director- general of the federal police.

Since Brazil’s return to democracy in 1985, the spectre of having participated in repressing political opponents during the 1964-85 military regime has hung over military personnel and police eager to ascend by securing key government posts.

‘Torture Never Again’, a non-governmental organisation that denounces human rights violations committed during the dictatorship, demanded Monday that the government postpone the investiture of the new police chief until the accusations against him were clarified.

In August 1970, as head of the political section of the federal police in the northern state of Maranhao, Campelo arrested Catholic priests Jose Antonio Monteiro and Xavier Gilles de Maupeou, accused of taking part in “subversive activities” against the military regime.

Monteiro, who later left the Church, accused Campelo of personally taking part in the torture he suffered during his 20 days in custody.

But despite the complaints, the government has decided to continue forward with the designation of the new police chief, said presidential spokesman Georges Lamaziere, who argued that Campelo’s participation in torture had never been proven.

But last Wednesday the local press began to publish testimony and documents substantiating the torture suffered by the priest and directly implicating Campelo.

Several bishops in northeastern Brazil, who secured Monteiro’s release in 1970, testified to the signs of torture the priest showed when he left the prison.

In September 1970, the Episcopal Conference told then-president Gen. Emilio Garrastazu Medici that Monteiro had indeed suffered torture, as proven by medical exams and the refusal of police to permit visits to the priest while he was in custody.

The lawyer to the two imprisoned priests at the time, Antonio de Padua Barroso, said the Secretariat of Public Security of Maranhao had verified Monteiro’s injuries, the Rio de Janeiro daily ‘Jornal do Brasil’ reported Monday.

The injuries were “typical of the ‘palo de arara’,” a method of torture that consists of hanging the victim from a stick inserted between his or her’s bent legs and tied arms, said the attorney.

The Chamber of Deputies Human Rights Commission has invited the former priest to testify this Wednesday.

The row triggered by the designation of the new police chief echoed earlier scandals.

This is the third time Cardoso has named individuals accused of committing torture under the military regime. In 1995, after taking office, the president was forced to withdraw the designation of Gen. Armando Avolio Filho as military attache to the Brazilian Embassy in London.

Two years later, a fresh scandal broke out when Gen. Ricardo Fayad was named head of the army department of health. The group Torture Never Again accused Fayad of collaborating with the military regime from 1970 to 1974 in Rio de Janeiro, by assessing political prisoners’ ability to endure torture without dying.

Campelo’s designation may have even broader political repercussions, due to the crisis it sparked between President Cardoso and the Party of the Brazilian Democratic Movement (PMDB), one of the three parties backing the Cardoso administration.

Cardoso has risked losing his Justice Minister, Renan Calheiros, who belongs to the PMDB. The federal police answers to the Justice Ministry, and both Calheiros and his party had been demanding that the post of director-general be filled.

Analysts say they could be expected to take advantage of the chance to pressure the president to replace Campelo, as a means of expanding their influence in the governing coalition.