The Commission on Political Deaths and Disappearances and the Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp) have identified the remains of Denis Casemiro and Grenaldo de Jesus Silva. Both were among the victims of political disappearances, buried by agents of the military dictatorship in a clandestine grave at the Dom Bosco Cemetery in Perus district, in São Paulo city.
“Both fought for democracy and freedom and were arrested by the Army, tortured, and murdered. Their bodies disappeared. Identifying them is a key step towards historical reparation and the right to memory and truth,” a statement released Tuesday (Apr. 15) reads.
Silva was a member of the Brazilian Navy born in São Luís, Maranhão state. He was arrested in 1964 and expelled from the institution while demanding better working conditions. He eventually escaped from prison and went into hiding, but was killed on May 30, 1972 when he tried to hijack an aircraft at São Paulo’s Congonhas airport.
Records at the Institute of Forensic Medicine show that Silva was buried undocumented at the Dom Bosco Cemetery on June 1, 1972, and was listed as missing until his skeletal remains were identified by the Perus Project team.
Casemiro was born in Votuporanga, São Paulo state, was a bricklayer, farmworker, and political activist in the Popular Revolutionary Vanguard (VPR). He was arrested in April 1971, tortured and executed by a team from the Department of Political and Social Order coordinated by police chief Sérgio Fleury. At the time of his death, fabricated accounts said that his death was the result of escape attempts.
Identification
Denis Casemiro had been identified in 1991. According to Unifesp, however, the identification was incorrect. Now, the investigators were able to obtain confirm his accurate identity by means of a genetic examination.
The recognition of the two missing people was made possible by the Perus Project, which seeks to identify the bones found in the Perus ditch. The project is a partnership between the Ministry of Human Rights and Citizenship, the São Paulo city hall, the commission, and Unifesp through the Center for Anthropology and Forensic Archaeology.
Silva and Casemiro were identified a few days after the federal government made a public apology for its negligence in guarding and identifying the bone remains from the Perus mass grave. On that occasion, Brazil’s Human Rights Minister Macaé Evaristo apologized to the victims’ families.
“The Ministry of Human Rights and Citizenship, on behalf of the Brazilian state, apologizes to the families of those who disappeared during the Brazilian military dictatorship initiated in 1964, and to Brazilian society for the negligence, from 1990 to 2014, in carrying out the identification work on the bones found in the Perus clandestine grave in the Dom Bosco Cemetery, in São Paulo,” the minister stated on the occasion.
Clandestine ditch
The ditch was discovered by journalist Caco Barcellos in 1990, when he was investigating murders committed by the military police. Looking at reports at the Institute of Forensic Medicine—in particular files dated 1971–1973 archived by the Department of Political and Social Order—he noticed the letter “T” in red pencil on some documents. He then asked institute officials what that meant and discovered it was short for “terrorist.”
Barcellos notified the administration of then São Paulo Mayor Luiza Erundina about the grave, which resulted in the start of excavations. At the site, 1,049 unidentified sets of bones of death-squad victims, undocumented individuals, and political prisoners were found.
The city hall then signed an agreement with the State University of Campinas (Unicamp) to identify the bones. Contact was also made with the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). The work was interrupted shortly afterwards and, in 2002, the bones were taken to the Araçá Cemetery, in São Paulo, under the responsibility of the University of São Paulo (USP). But the delay in completing the identification work was questioned in a 2009 civil action by federal prosecutors.
In 2014, a partnership between the Special Secretariat for Human Rights (now the Ministry of Human Rights), the Municipal Secretariat for Human Rights and Citizenship and Unifesp allowed efforts to continue the identification process. But few bones have been identified to date.
The remains of only five of the 42 people probably murdered during the military dictatorship and buried in the Perus ditch have been identified.
*Translated by Fabrício Ferreira
Original article published in Agência Brasil.
