By MOACYR OF OLIVEIRA FILHO*
The fight to create a memorial museum in the architectural complex where the infamous DOI-Codi of the II Army operated, in São Paulo
The paths for the construction of a memorial museum in the architectural complex where the DOI-Codi of the II Army operated, between the streets Tutóia, Tomás Carvalhal and Coronel Paulino Carlos, in the Paraíso neighborhood, in São Paulo, begin to be debated, by academics, jurists, former political prisoners and entities involved in this struggle, in the workshop DOI-Codi ancient memorial: the memorial museum we want.
This is a struggle that has been going on since January 2014, when the architectural complex was listed by CONDEPHAAT – the State Council for the Defense of Historical, Archaeological, Artistic and Tourist Heritage, with the recommendation that a Memorial be created there in honor of the victims of torture.
The request for the buildings to be listed was made in 2010 by Ivan Seixas, at the time a member of the Council for the Defense of the Human Person (Condepe), who was captured by DOI-Codi in April 1971, along with his father, Joaquim Alencar de Seixas, who was murdered under torture.
In June 2021, the Public Prosecutor's Office of São Paulo filed a Public Civil Action in the 14th Public Treasury Court, requesting the transfer of these buildings from the Public Security Secretariat to the Culture Secretariat and the beginning of the process of creating a Memory Center.
Judge José Eduardo Cordeiro Rocha granted an injunction ordering the Public Treasury of the State of São Paulo to immediately begin implementing the measures necessary to preserve all structural and architectural elements of the buildings, in accordance with the listing act, prohibiting new uses of the premises, including the installation of other public services.
On September 9, 2021, a conciliation hearing was held within the former DOI-Codi, when the government of São Paulo requested a 90-day period to present a counterproposal. Which, to date, has not happened.
Before starting the hearing, the judge made a point of personally visiting the locations where the cells and torture and interrogation rooms were located, in two of the four buildings that make up that architectural complex, as well as the house where the commander of DOI-CODI, at the time Major Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustra, lived with his wife, Maria Joseíta, and his daughter, Patrícia, who was 3 years old at the time.
It was a historic hearing. For the first time, Justice, in the person of Judge José Eduardo Cordeiro Rocha, of the 14th Public Finance Court of São Paulo, officially set foot in that torture and extermination center.
The representatives of the Government of the State of São Paulo refused to accept the transfer of those buildings to the Department of Culture and their transformation into a Memorial and asked for the action to be postponed for 90 days, so that they could present a concrete proposal for an agreement, which could be accepted by both the Public Prosecutor's Office, as well as by former political prisoners, survivors of that den of terror, and relatives of the dead and disappeared.
To date, despite several attempts, such an agreement proposal has not been presented by the Government of the State of São Paulo and the action is in the final phase of its processing, awaiting the sentence of Judge José Eduardo Cordeiro Rocha.
Between August 2 and 14, 2023, archaeological excavations were carried out at the former DOI-Codi, with the aim of exploring the remains of the site, such as objects, architectural structures and documentary records. The excavation resulted in the collection of more than 800 fragments, including biological material, such as traces of blood; inscriptions on the walls; fragments of glass, tiles, crockery and ceramics; and a bottle of ink used to stamp prisoners' records. The investigation work was carried out by researchers from the Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp), the State University of Campinas (Unicamp) and the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), coordinated by historian Deborah Neves.
This work, however, was restricted to the building where DOI-Codi operated at its beginning, between July 1969 and July 1971, when torture began to be carried out in the 36th DP building, access to which is more restricted, since the area where the cells and the main torture room were located is now partially occupied by Civil Police agencies.
Likewise, the monthly guided tours of the former DOI-Codi, organized by the Memory Center, important for showing this torture center to students and young people, are restricted to the old building, which is unoccupied, and do not include the 36th DP building.
In June 2024, with the activities developed by the GT Memorial DOI-Codi, coordinated by historian Deborah Neves, from Unifesp, that space was recognized as a Memory Point by the Brazilian Institute of Museums – Ibram.
Brief history
Considered the most violent and emblematic organ of repression of the military dictatorship, a kind of general command of the repressive apparatus of the entire country, Operation Bandeirantes (OBAN) was created on July 2, 1969. In September 1970, it was officially renamed the Information Operations Detachment – Internal Defense Operations Center (DOI-CODI).
It was initially installed in the headquarters of the 2nd Mechanized Reconnaissance Battalion of the Army Police, on Rua Abílio Soares, and in September 1969 it was transferred to the complex of buildings, between the streets Tutóia, 921, Tomás Carvalhal, 1030 and Coronel Paulino Carlos, in the Paraíso neighborhood, belonging to the Government of the State of São Paulo, behind the 36th DP, which operates there to this day.
According to data collected by the Rubens Paiva State Truth Commission, the National Truth Commission and journalist Marcelo Godoy, in his book Grandma's House, 78 of the more than 7 Brazilians captured by DOI-CODI – almost all of them tortured – were killed by direct action of its agents, under torture, executed in street operations or in other clandestine centers, such as Sítio 31 de Março, Casa de Itapevi, known as Boate, used from 1974, and Casa da Morte, in Petrópolis. Of these, 60 were murdered at DOI-CODI or by direct action of its agents, 38 of them under torture, and 18 in other torture centers. Of these 38 who died under torture, 31 were murdered in the Police Station building and 7 in the old building.
The vast majority of the 60 deaths at DOI-CODI occurred under the command of then Major Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustra, between September 1970 and January 1974 – 43 deaths (72%).
In July 1971, torture began to be carried out in rooms in the northern half of the main building, where the 36th DP still operates today, including acoustic lining in the main torture room, which was on the ground floor, next to the jail, where the pau-de-arara and the dragon chair were set up.
From that time onwards, the entrance of the vehicles that transported the prisoners, the fearsome C-14, was made through the iron gate at Rua Tomás Carvalhal, 1030, and no longer through the 36th DP.
There is also another building, a two-story house, where, for a certain period, Commander Ustra lived with his wife, Maria Joseíta, and his daughter, Patrícia, then 3 years old, who sometimes spent the afternoons playing in the women's cell or in the courtyard.
The DOI-CODI operated there until 1982, when it was transferred, initially, to the 4th Infantry Battalion, known as the Quitaúna Barracks, in Osasco, and then to an area in the Army Hospital, in Cambuci, where it remained until its deactivation, by an Ordinance of the Ministry of the Army, of January 18, 1985, which created in its place, in the 2nd Sections of the military units, the Operations Subsections (SOp), to carry out information and counter-information operations.
When this transfer took place, some of the main torturers left the agency and returned to the Military, Civil or Federal Police. One of them was the police chief Aparecido Laertes Calandra, who used the code name Captain Ubirajara, who returned to the Federal Police, taking with him the DOI-CODI files. The most sensitive documents were handed over to the Army. Another part went to the DOPS and is now in the Public Archives of the State of São Paulo, and can be consulted in folder 50 – Z – 9 of the Deops Fund.
What Memorial do we want?
In the debate about which Memorial should be implemented in that space, a group of former political prisoners who passed through there consider it essential that it include the areas of the 36th DP, at least where the cells were, the torture room on the ground floor and the staircase that led to the interrogation and torture rooms on the 1st floor.
The ultimate goal of this fight is to hand over the entire listed architectural complex to the Department of Culture and transform it into a Memorial, as requested in the public civil action, and we cannot give it up until negotiations are concluded.
However, one must understand the difficulties of achieving this, since, unlike the old building, these spaces are currently partially occupied by Civil Police departments, which are resisting releasing them. And, of course, one must be open to accepting any counterproposal that may be presented, excluding the Police Station building.
In this sense, a broader museum project should be considered, if the area of the 36th DP is released, and a more restricted project, if the release only occurs with the old building and the two-story house where Ustra lived for a time, which are now unoccupied.
Former prisoners who passed through there understand that in the torture room on the ground floor of the 36th DP building, or in the main torture room on the 1st floor of the old building, a parrot's perch, a dragon chair, a shock machine, known as a "pimentinha", and a hood must be reproduced.
Furthermore, if the areas of the 36th DP are released, they suggest that the cells, where the prison was located, now disfigured by several renovations, should be reconstructed as they were at the time, as well as the main torture room, on the ground floor, next to the prison.
They also argue that the wall and retaining wall that currently separate the buildings on Rua Tutóia from those on Rua Tomás Carvalhal should be demolished, reconstituting the original architecture and configuration, with the access ramp through which the C-14s with the captured entered, up to the yard, where they were unloaded.
Regarding the collection, they suggest that photos of all 78 dead people be placed, with their respective biographies, with special lighting, in addition to the reproduction of identification cards of some of the prisoners, the prison grid, handwritten statements, among others. Videos with testimonies from former prisoners should also be shown.
And what about the torturers? What should be done with them? There is no clarity on this, but we should consider the possibility of a space where their names and code names would be listed, linking them to the murders for which they are primarily responsible, and, who knows, photos of the most notorious.
These are some of the issues that should be discussed at the workshop, but the important thing is that everyone involved in this debate – academics, lawyers, organizations, former prisoners – are united to achieve the Memorial that is possible.
So that it doesn't happen again! So that it never happens again!
*Moacyr de Oliveira Lima He is the Director of Journalism at the Brazilian Press Association (ABI), was a collaborator of the National Truth Commission of the Presidency of the Republic and is a member of the GT Memorial DOI-Codi.
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