Brazilian Dictatorship Torturer’s Widow is Welcomed by Bolsonaro, Who Calls him “a National Hero”

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – President Jair Bolsonaro is scheduled to welcome, on Thursday, August 1st, Maria Joseíta Silva Brilhante Ustra, widow of Colonel Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustra — a well-known torturer during the Military Dictatorship, whose crimes have been recognized by Brazil’s courts.

Exiting his official residence of the Alvorada Palace he said on Thursday morning (8) that Colonel Brilhante Ustra is a “national hero”.

The meeting was scheduled in the president’s official calendar the night before. When asked by the report about the meeting, Planalto staff said they had no information available.

Maria Joseíta Silva Brilhante Ustra will meet with the president a few days after Bolsonaro countered historical documents and stated that Fernando Augusto Santa Cruz, missing during the military regime, had been murdered by leftist militants.

The National Truth Commission, a group established by the federal government, determined that Fernando Augusto de Santa Cruz Oliveira had been “arrested and killed by agents of the Brazilian government”.

According to the commission, Santa Cruz “remains missing, and his remains have not been handed over to his family.”

The acknowledgment of this fact was made official through the correction of his death certificate, carried out by the Commission of Missing and Deceased Political Persons, also linked to the federal government, only five days before Bolsonaro made reference to the case.

Throughout his career in public office, Bolsonaro has never concealed his fondness for the dictatorship and for Ustra.

During voting on the impeachment of then-President Dilma Rousseff (PT) in 2016, Bolsonaro dedicated his vote to “the memory of Colonel Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustra, the dread of Dilma.”

Despite the fact that in 2018, the São Paulo courts revoked Ustra’s conviction to pay compensation of R$100,000 (US$25,000) to the family of journalist Luiz Eduardo Merlino, murdered in 1971 during the dictatorship, the military officer had already been held guilty by the Superior Court of Justice in late 2014 for practicing torture.

At the time, the court denied an appeal from Ustra under the Amnesty Law and ruled that former political prisoners who had been tortured could lodge claims for compensation for moral damages. The STJ adhered to the interpretation of earlier court cases, which acknowledged that Ustra had tortured the claimants.