WHEN - Between November 4, 1969,
to the first week of August 1974.
WHERE - DOPS/SP and Oban (future Doi-Codi); Arbrestes Forest, France.
WHO - Father Tito de Alencar,
Dominican priest, 29 years of age, former leader
of JEC (Catholic Student Youth), native of Ceará;
Chief of Police "Fleury"; and Captains Albernaz,
Maurício and Homero, among others.
WHAT - Severely tortured at the D.O.P.S.
headquarters, where he remained isolated for 40
days and after that at the O.B.A.N. Banned from
Brazil, he lived in Chile, Italy and France.
He hung himself from a tree near the Arbrestes
Convent, after 5 years of extreme sufferings.
His sister, Nildes, said that Tito constantly
had visions of Chief Fleury in front of him.
HOW - Blows with butts of rifles and guns,
hung upside down from his knees, electrical
shocks, dragon-chair (torture by fire), beating
with sticks. Father Tito received verbal religious
offenses, was sexually abused, kicked, cigarette
burns on his skin and was beaten by a line-up of
"police officers" who kicked and beat him, while
the victim tries to get to the other side of the hall
where the line-up was taken place.
WHY - The accusations against Father Tito:
Accused of conspiring against the government;
and to have ties with urban guerilla's leaders.
FATHER TITO'S SUFFERING AND MYSTERY
-Tuesday...
"Now you will have the pleasure of
seeing what hell looks like!" - Shouted
the officers. "They handcuffed my
hands, threw me in the trunk of a Van.
While on the road, the torturing started:
stabbing on the head and neck with a knife..."
Wednesday...
"I was awaken at 8 a.m. and taken to an
upper level stairs room where Captain
Homero's team was expecting me. They
repeated the same questions over and over.
For each negative answer I got stabbed
on the head, arms and chest.
And they went on, until evening..."
Thursday...
"They wanted to leave me hanging upside
down, but Captain Albernaz objected:
" It is not necessary". "We will keep him
here a few more days. If he doesn't talk,
he's gonna have his internal organs ruptured."
Sources:
Jornal do Brasil, "The death of a Dominican",
by Romero do Valle. September 30, 1978:
Extracted from the files of "Jornal O São Paulo."
