Documentary reveals Linhares Letter

This Monday (29), from 7pm, at Teatro Paschoal Carlos Magno, the documentary “Letter from Linhares: torture revealed”, directed by journalist-judge Marcelo Passos, will be launched. The ceremony is attended by the director and two characters involved in the story: Maria José de Carvalho Nahas and Jorge Nahas. In addition, there is an artistic presentation by “Coletivo Vozes da Rua”, which provides a response to the letter written in the Juiz de Fora prison during the military dictatorship.

In January 1969, the police invaded the place where the National Liberation Command (Colina) guerrillas were meeting, in Belo Horizonte. After passing through several places, in cities other than the capital of Minas Gerais, including suffering torture, the militants were taken to the Linhares Penitentiary, in Juiz de Fora, which, at that time, received some of the political prisoners of the military dictatorship. It was there that Colina met, at the end of 1969, and wrote the Linhares Letter: a document that exposed the way in which those who opposed the government were treated inside prisons, from torture to threats.

The Linhares Letter and its 28 pages with detailed descriptions were written by Ângelo Pezzuti and signed by 12 members of Colina. In addition to being filmed in Brazil, it gained international repercussion. But, all the while, the government found a way to cover up what was revealed through it. So much so that, in a way, it ended up falling into oblivion. In 2012, however, a dossier containing the letter, the government’s positions and statements regarding the document was sent to the National Truth Commission. It was at that moment that the judge-forano journalist Marcelo Passos learned what, after all, the Carta de Linhares was. Years later, with all that in mind, he released a documentary that revealed the letter.

From Linhares’ Letter

Upon reading Linhares’ Letter in full, Marcelo understood that there was a document that needed to be further researched and, at the same time, circulated, so that people would become aware of what this episode in Brazil’s recent history was. “I was shocked by the letter. I did some research at that time based solely on the dossier and, with that, I created a documentary project.” This project was made possible 12 years later, and is presented at a time when the military dictatorship turns 60, and, in Juiz de Fora, thanks to a series of activities that took place this month to discuss the coup in the place where it emerged.

Production for “Carta de Linhares: torture revealed” began in February this year, when the invitation was made by the special secretary for Human Rights of the Juiz de Fora City Council (PJF), sociologist Gabriel dos Santos Rocha, Biel. And it was at this time that Marcelo identified some of the 12 signatories, as well as others involved directly or indirectly in the letter, and interviewed them. Despite so many years after the letter was written, some things are still vivid in our memories. Others, not so much.

“My criteria was that I could hear the largest number of signatories of the letter”, says Marcelo. Of the 12, two participate in the film: Maria José and Jorge. They told the behind-the-scenes of the document’s production and what they went through when they were arrested, in addition to the period when they left Brazil also on orders from the military government. In addition to them, the special advisor to President Lula, Nilmário Miranda, and Ângela Pezzuti, to whom the documentary is dedicated, participate in the documentary.

Angela Pezzuti

Interviewing her had been Marcelo’s desire since the idea of ​​making a documentary arose. This is because she was Ângelo’s aunt, who was the one who wrote and organized the document. He and his brother, Murilo Pinto da Silva, were students and got involved in the guerrilla. Their mother was the governor’s secretary at the time and, involved in her children’s struggles, she was arrested a few times by the dictatorship. It was then up to Angela to protect her nephews. “She fought for their survival. She followed the entire martyrdom, experienced difficult situations, came to Juiz de Fora at the time to ensure the preservation of her nephews’ lives.” Ângela, aged 92, welcomed Marcelo and his team at home to contribute to the documentary. Days later she died, victim of a stroke. His last records are in “Letter from Linhares: torture revealed”.

Angela, above all, was responsible for circulating the letter. In the documentary, she says that the letter came to her through Jorge’s mother, when there was a group of mothers that provided support to prisoners. Ângela had a friend from Rio de Janeiro who works in the Senate, and she asked him to publicize the letter, in her own way. Another friend from Belo Horizonte was responsible for translating the letter. And that was why it circulated beyond Brazil. Another determining factor for its international circulation was the kidnapping of the West German ambassador to Brazil, Ehrenfried von Holleben. The activists gave him the letter, which he handed over to the German government.

However, how the letter actually came from Linhares is still a nebulous matter. “And the documentary addresses this: everyone says something. He presents the different versions of how the letter came from Linhares. There are even letters that were sent to the Brazilian government, asking for explanations, but I didn’t include them. I left this to the interviewees’ speech”, explains Marcelo, who admits that he wants to do more projects with this theme.

“Gagged silence”

Despite having circulated to some extent in Brazil and abroad, the Linhares Letter did not have an immediate effect in the country. “Because everything was under the control of the dictatorship. Including the press, which also joined the coup. She gave the ‘official’ version. He said that a document like this was a document written by terrorists, with the intention of depreciating and tarnishing the image of Brazil. The material I have from the press talks about the lies that these dangerous terrorists had made in Juiz de Fora and spread. The dictatorship and the army never recognized that there was torture. We open the documentary with the army’s position, which it has always denied. In fact, (the letter) did not cause an uproar in Brazil. It was a gagged silence.”

Years later she gained more attention from people. It was she, in fact, who revealed that there was a torture class in the military village in Rio de Janeiro, a scene that is part of the film “Estado de siege”, by Costa-Gavras, from 1972 and also in the documentary. When the prisoners were banished from Brazil and went to live in Algeria, they were also questioned about the letter there. “And everything happened quickly. They were arrested in January 69 and banned in 70. It was in Algeria that they came into contact with the repercussion of the letter. Until then, there was talk about torture, but nothing actually proved it, until the letter. And the documentary shows this path to the letter, what happened at that moment.”

Path that the letter takes

Even today, little is said about the Linhares Letter, despite so many things that have already been revealed. And Juiz de Fora, which was the scene of all this, also, in a way, does not tell this story. “Juiz de Fora lived with this without fanfare”, believes Marcelo. And it continues: “Linhares remains far from the city. The city was unaware of what was happening there. The troops to establish the military regime left here. And, ironically, here also appears the first document denouncing torture, carried out by the military government, which denied it and continued to deny it. It is an irony of history: Juiz de Fora was the starting point and it also managed, through the daring and courage of the prisoners, to be the scene of the worst accusations that the regime could face.”

For Marcelo, “Letter from Linhares: torture revealed” is also a starting point. He wants to show more characters from this story. “Each person who was involved in this story fighting against the political regime, each of them has a story. Each one has a story of suffering, pain, struggle, even funny stories.” He wants to look even deeper into the archives that exist, including in Juiz de Fora. But first, he wants to make the documentary circulate. “He has a way to go,” he says. He will then make it available on YouTube, so that more people have access to the material he managed to create.