By ARNS COMMITTEE
Public note in repudiation of Mourão's demonstration exalting Ustra
In a public note, the Commission for the Defense of Human Rights Dom Paulo Evaristo Arns – Arns Commission expresses its most vehement repudiation of the statement by the Vice President of the Republic, Hamilton Mourão, in an interview with the German network Deutsche Welle, that Colonel Carlos Alberto Bright Ustra was “a man of honor, who respected the human rights of his subordinates”. The words of the vice president, who is a retired Army general, not only dishonor the Armed Forces, but also attack the dignity of those who suffered at the hands of this torturer already condemned by the Justice.
It is not new that authorities of the current government exalt the macabre figure of the former head of DOI-Codi of the 2nd Army, in São Paulo, from whose basements emerged unforgettable reports of terror and sadism against Brazilian citizens. To get an idea of the barbarism authorized as a State policy, between 1970 and 1974, the Justice and Peace Commission of the Archdiocese of São Paulo, led by Dom Paulo Evaristo Arns, patron of the Arns Commission, gathered more than 500 denunciations of torture at the DOI -Codi commanded by Ustra.
More than 30 years passed before, finally in 2008, Ustra was recognized as the perpetrator of kidnapping and torture, in a declaratory action filed by the Telles family, whose members were able to survive to witness the cruelties perpetrated by that soldier and his “subordinates”, in the basements of the dictatorship.
Today and always, tributes to this violator of the Constitutional Charter of 1967/9, the Military Penal Code of 1969 and the Geneva Conventions of 1949 will be unacceptable, as documented in the Report of the National Truth Commission (CNV).
By uttering such praise, Hamilton Mourão defiles, from the outset, the honor of the Brazilian military. By doing so as Vice-President, he embarrasses the Nation and disrespects the memory of those who fell under Ustra. And, by insisting on honoring the executioner, he violates once more the decorum of the office in which he was invested under oath to respect the Constitution. It is she who teaches us: “Torture is a non-bailable crime, not subject to grace or amnesty”.
São Paulo, October 2020
Genevois daisy, honorary chairman of the Arns Commission
Jose Carlos Dias, president of the Arns Commission, former coordinator of the National Truth Commission
Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, former president and member of the Arns Commission, former coordinator of the National Truth Commission
Ailton krenak, indigenous leader and environmentalist
André Singer, political scientist and journalist
Antonio Claudio Mariz de Oliveira, lawyer, former president of OAB-SP
Belisario dos Santos Jr.., lawyer, member of the International Commission of Jurists
Claudia Costin, University professor, former Minister of Administration
Dalmo by Abreu Dalari, lawyer, professor emeritus and former director of the Faculty of Law at USP
Fabio Konder Comparato, lawyer, Doctor Honoris Causa of the University of Coimbra, emeritus professor at the Faculty of Law of USP
Jose Gregori, lawyer, former Minister of Justice
jose vincent, dean of Faculdade Zumbi dos Palmares
Laura Greenhalghjournalist
Luiz Carlos Bresser-Pereira, economist, former Minister of Finance, Administration and State Reform
Luiz Felipe de Alencastro, historian, professor at the School of Economics at FGV-SP and professor emeritus at the Sorbonne Université
Manuela Ligeti Carneiro da Cunha, professor at USP and the University of Chicago, former president of Ass. Bras. of Anthropology
Maria Herminia Tavares de Almeida, political scientist, full professor at the University of São Paulo
Maria Victoria Benevides, sociologist and political scientist, full professor at the Faculty of Education at USP
Oscar Vilhena Vieira, jurist, professor at the Faculty of Law of FGV-SP
Paulo Vannuchi, journalist, political scientist, former Minister of Human Rights
Sueli Carneiro, philosopher, feminist, anti-racist activist and director of Geledés
Vladimir Safari, philosopher, professor at the Department of Philosophy at USP
