Word: brazilians
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Last January, for example, Brazilian President Ernesto Geisel dismissed General Eduardo D'Avila Mela, the commander of the second army in Sao Paulo and a notorious advocate of torture. That seemed to reduce the mistreatment of prisoners in the city, but there was a flurry of new charges that prisoners in Rio were being tortured. Some civil rights activists believe that the São Paulo torturers simply shifted their operations to Rio. "There is a national network of torturers," says one ex-prisoner and torture victim; "they coordinate their work. It is a system and therefore very powerful...
...with. Another hope is that dictatorships will gain enough of a sense of security to cut out at least the routine use of the worst brutalities. Meanwhile, about the only avenues left are publicity and prayer-and, perhaps, keeping alive in memory a statement made by Vladimir Hertzog, a Brazilian journalist found dead a few hours after being detained in Sao Paulo last October. Said Hertzog: "If we lose our capacity to be outraged when we see others submitted to atrocities, then we lose our right to call ourselves civilized human beings...
...feature of a vague, inchoate subculture that exists in every country where torture is an established practice. This shadowy netherworld is marked most obviously by a mocking language of euphemisms and code words. Some former prisoners report, for example, that at the notorious Sao Paulo torture center of the Brazilian political police, a torture session has been called a "spiritual seance," as if it involved a cleansing of impurities. Victims in Chile say that DINA interrogators refer to Santiago's infamous Villa Grimaldi as the Palacio de la Risa?the Palace of Laughter. In Iran, Otagh-e Tamshiyat...
...same thing, except that a plastic bag is tied over the victim's head to deprive him of oxygen. In the Grill, the victim is stretched out face up on a metal frame while a "massage" of shocks is delivered to various parts of the body. A Brazilian invention called the Parrot's Perch is used in many countries; it consists of a horizontal stick from which the prisoner is hung by the knees, with hands and ankles tied together. Another common technique, called the Telephone, consists of delivering sharp blows to both ears simultaneously, which often causes excruciatingly painful...
...confidence of the country" and to economic pressure-meaning a reluctance on the part of banks and international agencies to lend money. In fact, Guyana can show no such reluctance from the World Bank or the Inter-American Loan Fund. Guyana also claims there has been an increase in Brazilian troop strength on the southern border; Hillenbrand found no signs of tension...