February 4, 1971

Please find herewith an account of all that happened to me during almost nine months’ imprisonment . . . I was arrested on May 11, 1970 in Sao Paulo on my way to dinner with a young lady whom I had recently met. I learned afterwards that she belonged to a political organization. She had been arrested several days previously and violently tortured and taken to Operacao Bandeirantes.

I was picked up even before I reached the meeting place and taken off in a car (the license plate was not an official one) by four armed policemen. We went to the OBAN headquarters. During the journey the leader of the group ordered the young lady to show me her hands so that “I could have an idea of what awaited me.” She lifted her hands, which were handcuffed, and I saw that they were greatly swollen and were covered with dark purple hematomas. I learned that she had been badly beaten with a type of “palmatoria.” Once the car stopped in the OBAN courtyard, they began immediately to punch and kick me in the presence of some people seated on benches in front of the main building. I was beaten as I went up the steps to a room on the top floor where they continued to slap me, hit me about the head, and bang my ears with cupped hands (telephone torture); they took the handcuffs off and continued to hit me with their truncheons while questioning me.

They ordered me to strip completely; I obeyed. They made me sit down on the ground and tied my hands with a thick rope. One of the six or seven policemen present put his foot on the rope in order to tighten it as much as possible. I lost all feeling in my hands. They put my knees up to my elbows so that my tied hands were on a level with my ankles. Then they placed an iron bar about eight centimeters wide between my knees and elbows and suspended me by resting the two ends of the iron bar on a wooden stand so that the top part of my body and my head were on one side and my buttocks and legs on the other, at three feet from the floor. After punching me and clubbing me, they placed a wire in the little toe of the left foot and placed the other end between my testicles and my leg. The wires were attached to a camp telephone so that the current increased or decreased according to the speed at which the handle was turned. In this way, they began to give me electric shocks and continued to beat me brutally both with their hands and with a “palmatoria“–a plague full of holes–which left a completely black hematoma, larger in size than an outstretched palm, on one of my buttocks. The electric shocks and the beatings continued for several hours. I arrived about 14.30 [2:30 PM] and it was beginning to get dark when I practically lost consciousness. Each time that I fainted, they threw water over me to increase my sensitivity to the electric shocks. Then they took the wire from my testicles and began to apply it my face and head, giving me terrible shocks on my face, in my ears, mouth, and nostrils. One of the policemen remarked, “Look, he is letting off sparks. Put it in his ear now.” The group of torturers were under the command of Captain Albernaz and consisted of about six men, among them Sergeants Tomas, Mauricio, Chico, and Paulinho.

The torture was so serious and long-lasting that I thought I would die. I began to feel completely drained; my body was covered in a cold sweat; I could not move my eyelids; I was swallowing my tongue and could only breathe with difficulty; I could no longer speak. I tried throughout this time to think of great men who had suffered horrible things for a noble ideal. This encouraged me to fight on and not give way despair. I felt that my hands would become gangrenous because circulation was blocked for some hours. I moaned “My hands, my hands!” and they continued to beat my hands with their clubs. I think they had lowered the bar and laid me out on the ground. They tried to revive me with ammonia but I didn’t respond. They struck on the testicles with the end of a stick; they burnt my shoulders with cigarette stubs; they put the barrel of a revolver in my mouth saying they would kill me. They threatened me with sexual abuse. Suddenly, my whole body began to tremble and I began to writhe as if shaken by an earthquake. The policemen were alarmed and called for a doctor from the first-aid post. They said I was a soldier who was feeling ill. They gave me an injection and refused to give me water although my body was completely dehydrated. They left me to sleep in the same room in which I had been tortured.

The following morning I was violently shaken by the shoulders. I realized that I was still shaking, my eyelids were shut, my tongue was paralyzed, and I felt strange muscular contractions on the right side of my face. My left leg was like a piece of wood, the front turned downwards and toes had contracted and would not move. The small toe was totally black. After enduring many insults, I was carried to the general military hospital of Sao Paulo. The sole of my left foot was again forcibly struck in order to try and return it to its normal position and make it fit into my shoe. Despite shooting pains, the foot would not move. The torturers took me by the arms and legs and brought me like a sack to the courtyard whereI was thrown into the back of the van.

I later learned that at the hospital they gave me only two hours to live. The military chaplain came to hear my confession. I asked the soldiers who were on guard in my room to leave us alone but they refused. In these circumstances, the priest could only give absolution in extremis in case I should die. For several days I was subjected to interrogation at the hospital despite the fact that my condition had not improved. The fifth day after I was admitted to the hospital two policemen opened up the door to my room saying, “Now that you are alone we are going to get ride of you. You are going to die . . . and one of them began to hit me about the face and body. I tried to protect myself and to cry out but I was still shaking and could hardly move. In addition, my twisted tongue prevented me from crying out loudly. I could not see them well because my eyelids still would not move. The policeman continued to say, “No one can hold out against Sergio Adao, you are going to die. . . ” He went out for a moment with the other to see if anyone was coming and then returned to continue. Eventually, I managed to cry out loudly. They were frightened and left me . . .

I remained in this general hospital for about a month and a half. During this time I was visited several times for questioning. My family had been trying to help me and for over a month had been trying unsuccessfully to find me. I finally received a note which told me that they had discovered where I as. But I remained incommunicado, without permission to see my family, for five more months, and I received no visit from a lawyer throughout the duration of my detention.

When I was released from the the hospital, my right eyelid was still paralyzed (it remained thus until the month of December) and I had a slight but constant shake in the shoulders, the left arm and leg; the latter, half paralyzed, could not support any weight and I was obliged to use a broomstick for a walking stick.

I was sent back to OB, put in a cell, and told to write out a statement . . . I finished this in three days, at the end of which time I was brought face to face with the young woman whom I had been on my way to meet at the time of my arrest. It was six o’clock when I was carried into the room where she was kept. They wanted me to admit the name of the organization of which they believed I was a member and they wanted me to give the names of supposed comrades. They began to carry the young woman off into another room and gave her a strong electric shock in order to make me talk (they were afraid to torture me again in view of my poor physical condition). I heard the cries of the girl being tortured and when they brought her back into my room she was shaking and totally distraught. I was paralyzed with fear at witnessing such cruelty and even more terrified when they threatened to do the same to members of my family if I didn’t tell them what they wanted to know. They repeated the electric shock treatment on the girl and, seeing that they were not achieving anything, decided to call the doctor to examine me physically to see if I was fit to undergo more torture. The doctor ordered certain tablets and said that I should not be given food. They brought me back to my cell and were to return for me later. Having seen that they were ready to torture the young woman again, and possibly members of my family as well, I decided to try and protect these people and I agreed to write out another deposition.

I was carried into the room of a certain Captain Dauro, who, along with another officer, offered me coffee and cigarettes and advised me in a comradely fashion to cooperate with them. I began by saying that I did not want to cooperate with them since they represented the institutions of force and violence which we are presently experiencing and because they used such inhuman treatment when dealing with people against whom they had no proof. They were irritated and began to torture the young woman once again in order to make me talk. Finally, they used violence on me again, along with insults and moral attacks, threats concerning members of my family, and even attempts to strangle me. They blindfolded me and pushed a revolver against my forehead–all to the same end. After several hours, they carried the young girl and me back to our cells. Major Gil, head of OBAN, and Captain Dauro, Captain Faria, jailer Robert, a huge lieutenant with ginger hair and moustache, a young feeble-looking black, and three others, about whom I can remember nothing, took part in this torture session.

The following evening, when they came for me I was again suffering from contractions, my right side was paralyzed, I dribbled, my body twitched constantly. . . .

The next morning I was carried into court. My condition had considerably worsened and my seizures were continual and more visible. I was photographed, my fingerprints were taken, and I was then brought into a room on the same floor as the torture room. A sergeant in a military police uniform with his name band covered with a sash, interrogated me calmly for 45 minutes. He threatened me alternately with torture and death if I refused to confess. Later, he told me that he was a doctor and knew that I would die if he permitted me to be tortured again. In the end, he gave me an injection for my spasms and told me that I ought to be taken back to the hospital. Throughout the night, I was locked up in a bathroom and was then taken to a doctor, Primo Alfredo, who had recently been arrested. Throughout the night, we heard as usual the terrible screams of people being tortured. The following morning I was once again brought to the military hospital.

Two days later my condition began to worsen and I lost consciousness and became delirious; this condition lasted more than ten days. I learned afterwards what had happened during that period. . .

. . . It is clear that my case is not exceptional, as such events have become commonplace during the last few years in Brazil.

. . . I thank your Holiness for your interest and the action taken in an attempt to secure my release. I beg you to do the same for the other thousands of men and women who suffer the same treatment in Brazil and in other countries, . . . unfortunate human beings who continue to be tortured.

Signed: Marcos Pena Settamini de Arruda

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Source:
Amnesty International, Report on Allegations of Torture in Brazil. Palo Alto, CA: Amnesty International West Coast Office, 1973.