Brazilian president-elect invites ex-cellmates to inauguration

[Judi Lynn]

Source: IANS/EFE

Brazilian president-elect invites ex-cellmates to inauguration
Brasilia, Dec 31, (IANS/EFE) :

Brazilian President-elect Dilma Rousseff invited to her inauguration this weekend 11 women with whom she shared cells during the almost three years she was imprisoned for her links with groups that had taken up arms against the dictatorship.


"In prison, Dilma already had a strong presence, she was already a leader and she showed great solidarity," journalist Rose Nogueira, one of the 11 women who between 1970 and 1972 were imprisoned with Rousseff, said in an interview published by the daily O Globo.

The 11 former cellmates are among a group of people close to Rousseff who have been specially invited by her to the ceremony at which she will receive the presidential sash from the hands of outgoing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Sociologist Lenira Machado, another of the women who was at the women's detention centre, known during the period as the "Tower of the Maidens", told O Globo that besides the participation of each one of them in the guerrilla movement, both she and Rousseff agreed that the dictatorship had to be fought with arms. "We defended the armed struggle, based on the formation of plots and not as a simple adventure," Machado said.

Rousseff was imprisoned and tortured for her links with the small Colina and VAR-Palmares guerrilla groups, but she has said that she never actually picked up a weapon or participated in any of the actions undertaken by those cells.

Read more: http://www.deccanherald.com/content/125136/brazilian-president-elect-invites-ex.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. I'm adding a photo of the "Parrot's Perch,"the torture device upon which Dilma Rousseff was hung,

time after time after time during her inprisonment under the Brazilian right-wing dictatorship.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com.nyud.net:8090/3641/3362067513_e6ccb16911.jpg

http://www.militarpos64.com.br.nyud.net:8090/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/53-brasil-tortura-nunca-mais-imagem.jpg

"pau de arara" (Parrot's Perch)

Public Monument "Nunca Mais" created to commemorate the government's use of "The Parrot's
Perch," a device which was used by slave owners in Brazil to devastate the "slaves".

Nunca Mais is also the name of a volume of testimonies carefully collected by the Brazilian Roman Catholic Church, taken from prisoners who were tortured, published to inform the world of what had happened to them during their political imprisonment in Brazil. This was different from Argentina's, and Chile's clergy, who ASSISTED those dictatorships in acts AGAINST the alleged dissidents.

Dilma Rousseff was given electric shocks, and hemorrhaged from those experiences.
Wikipedia:
Torture technique

Pau de arara can also refer to a physical torture technique designed to cause severe joint and muscle pain, as well as headaches, and psychological trauma. The technique consists of a tube, bar, or pole placed over the victim's biceps and behind the knees while tying the victim's both ankles and wrists together. The entire assembly is suspended between two metal platforms forming what looks like a parrot's perch.

This technique is believed to originate from Portuguese slave traders, which used Pau de arara as a form of punishment for disobedient slaves. Its usage has been more recently widespread by the agents of the political police of the Brazilian military dictatorship against political dissidents in the 1960s and 1970s and it still believed to be in use by Brazilian police forces<1>, although outlawed<1>. The device was often used as a restraint for a combination of other torture techniques, such as water boarding, nail pulling, branding, electric shocks, and sexual torture.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pau_de_Arara

http://cdn.wn.com.nyud.net:8090/pd/9e/bc/2f076f18b033038db3e05447cce7_grande.jpg

Dilma Rousseff, and her running mate, Michel Temer.

http://pucf5.files.wordpress.com.nyud.net:8090/2010/08/dilma_e_lula14.jpg

Picture of Dilma with Lula da Silva, for whom she worked as Chief of Staff, shared earlier by DU'er dipsydoodle.

[Kaleko]

2. My god, I will never forget these pictures.

What to say about the women and men who endured this horrific torture...

[RandomThoughts]

3. I thought a long time on that.

Part of me thinks in terms of evade and resist training of seals.

Part of me thinks of how can I be compassionate and nice.

[kgnu_fan]

4. Thank you for this post. We need to remember this, because USA may fall into the Third World status

[justinaforjustice]

It Is Here, Now. Demand Prosecution & Accountability.

The U.S. has already done equal and worse types of torture to detainees. This is not a "third world" custom, it's our own "superpower" that has been doing it. Wake up! Fascist torture by the U.S. has been taking place since 2001, if not before.

We cannot stop protesting and demanding accountability for the torturers, however high and powerful their positions. If we don't, it will only get worse and worse.

[justinaforjustice]

5. It Is Here, Now. Demand Prosecution & Accountability.

The U.S. has already done equal and worse types of torture to detainees. This is not a "third world" custom, it's our own "superpower" that has been doing it. Wake up! Fascist torture by the U.S. has been taking place since 2001, if not before.

We cannot stop protesting and demanding accountability for the torturers, however high and powerful their positions. If we don't, it will only get worse and worse.