By ELAINE TAVARES*
Comments on the newly released book
The fourth volume of the book is now in circulation. Full Stop Collection, a major project by journalist and editor Nelson Rolim de Moura that aims to tell the story of the 38 journalists tortured and murdered by the military dictatorship that took over the country in 1964. Despite still being in its early stages, it can be said that these four books have already consolidated an invaluable work that will certainly only be strengthened with the other volumes duly prepared.
Nelson Rolim's work is, without a doubt, an extraordinary contribution not only to history, but also to journalism, since it focuses on the work of journalists. The collection also recovers national memory, since it is not limited to a biography of the person, but rather to the account of an entire era.
The books in the collection go hand in hand with the journalist's personal story, narrating the revolutionary press, the struggle movements, the revolutionary proposals, and the most important figures in politics and national history. In addition, Nelson Rolim gives the names and surnames of the torturers and murderers, thus exposing a truth that these people so much want to hide.
The fourth volume tells the story of Carlos Alberto Soares de Freitas, known as Beto, a militant from Minas Gerais. Nelson Rolim's research presents the entire political atmosphere since the 1950s, focusing his analysis on the Jânio/Jango period, the role of the United States, the entire battle for legality and the students' struggle to build a national project. Beto is one of those involved in this universe, joining the student struggle in 1961 when Brazil was experiencing the effervescence of the growth of the social struggle that was emerging throughout Latin America after the Cuban revolution.
It is not without reason that Beto was sent by his organization, the Workers' Policy (Polop), to Cuba, where he was able to witness the deep roots of the revolution in the Cuban people. That experience made him return to the country certain of the need for agrarian reform and universal education.
This is how Beto, soon after returning to Brazil, also joined the rural struggle with the Peasant Leagues that were already organized and consolidated in several Brazilian states, ready to support what would later be called “basic reforms” by João Goulart. At university, Beto worked alongside Vânia Bambirra and Theotonio dos Santos, giving political training courses both through the Central Student Directory (UFMG) and through workers’ unions.
These were years of great mobilization. Revolutionary nationalism was at its peak. Belo Horizonte was no exception and the youth were organizing themselves. In those days, he and other friends even opened a bar – an old Minas Gerais tradition – which became a meeting point for revolutionary youth and intellectuals.
Therefore, when the coup took place on March 31, that group had already begun to resist. The process of hunting down the so-called “communists” also began, and the groups began to disband or go underground. The Peasant Leagues were crushed and the students were persecuted. Because of this persecution, Beto left Belo Horizonte and went to Rio de Janeiro. From that moment on, he began another phase of militancy, already living in the logic of apparatus and anonymity, traveling frequently to prepare the guerrilla movement in other parts of the country.
It wasn't long before Beto was arrested for spray-painting walls, and he spent 98 days in prison. It was the beginning of the dictatorship and he didn't experience any major physical torture. He was able to take advantage of the time to read and study even more, strengthening his principles and faith in the revolution. He left prison stronger in his ideals, certain of what he should do, and further deepened the process of educating his comrades. He insisted on the need to study and learn about the great theorists of revolutions, and he continued to write for the newspaper of the DCE of UFMG, even after graduating. It was necessary to reach the youth.
In 1967, after years of activism, Beto was sentenced in absentia and had to go underground for good. That was when he left Polop to join another organization, the National Liberation Command (Colina), focusing on actions that could also engage popular movements. He did not accept actions that were disconnected from the masses. From there until 1971, when he was already a member of the Palmares Revolutionary Armed Vanguard (VAR-Palmares) and was finally assassinated, Beto was tireless in his struggle, spending more than a decade in the systematic task of educating people and building the idea of a free and sovereign country. This decade of activism is narrated masterfully by Nelson Rolim.
Although the book is over five hundred pages long, it is a breeze to read because the narrative is lively and engaging. The reader feels like they are in the middle of the battle, and is able to establish connections between Carlos Alberto's life and the life of the nation. It is, therefore, a book for people who are eager to read history. A space to encounter national reality at a time that many people seek to leave in obscurity. Nelson Rolim does the opposite. He sheds light.
He gives his name and surname, digs into his entrails, exposes his wounds, and reveals his terrors. And, in Beto's journey, he also ties together the threads of other lives that crossed paths with his during this period so full of pain. This is the case of Inês, Beto's lifelong friend, who is the only survivor of the House of Death, in Petrópolis, in the mountains of Rio de Janeiro, where Beto was murdered. After brutal torture, she manages to escape and stay alive. And it is she who will reveal Beto's passage through that den of terror, until he is finally silenced forever.
Despite this testimony, Beto's body has not yet been found. He is a missing person. The cheerful little boy from Minas Gerais was waited for years by his parents, with his room tidy in the apartment on Espirito Santo Street in Belo Horizonte. While they were alive, they never lost hope of seeing him walk through the door with his crystal smile. But Beto never showed up.
Nelson Rolim's impeccable text has the ability to transport us to those painful days when fighting for freedom and democracy was practically a death sentence.
The universalizing account that presents us with the life of this vibrant intellectual of the armed struggle is only possible with good journalism, also consolidated in the other three volumes already published. Journalism in the style of Adelmo Genro Filho, singularized in Beto's biography, but capable of composing the great mosaic of what the country was in the decade from 1960 to 1971.
Let the other 34 volumes come, because only when they are all published will we be able to reach the final point. At least with regard to the 38 journalists who disappeared and were murdered during the dictatorship. Nelson Rolim is thus providing an invaluable service to journalism and to Brazil. It is an extraordinary project, unprecedented in the country.
Elaine Tavares is a journalist.
Reference
Nelson Rolim de Moura. Carlos Alberto de Freitas: an intellectual in the armed struggle. Florianópolis, Editora Insular, 2024, 598 pages. [https://shre.ink/g82o]
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