Erasmo Dias: exponent of the dictatorship honored by Tarcísio – 06/29/2023 – Politics

Colonel Erasmo Dias, now honored by the Tarcísio de Freitas government (Republicans), was one of the exponents of the military dictatorship in Brazil (1964-1985) and one of the symbols of repression against students.

Born in Paraguaçu Paulista in 1924, he graduated from the Military School of Resende (current Academia Militar das Agulhas Negras, in Rio) at the age of 21 and rose in his career uninterruptedly. In 1973, already as a colonel, he became Chief of Staff of the 2nd Military Region, in São Paulo.

During his rise, in 1962, he participated in an unsuccessful attempt to depose João Goulart, then President of the Republic. In the coup two years later, he commanded the occupation of a refinery in Cubatão (SP).

His notoriety, however, would only come in the following decade, when he served as Secretary of Public Security for the State of São Paulo from 1974 to 1979, with two brief interruptions.

It was September 1977, and a decree by President Ernesto Geisel prohibited student concentrations throughout the country. On the 22nd, however, the UNE (National Union of Students) challenged that order with a meeting at PUC-SP (Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo).

Around 2,000 students were gathered there when Erasmo Dias appeared by surprise. Police officers led by the colonel chased the youths with batons and bombs. They arrested hundreds and injured 19, 18 of them women – two of whom spent about a month in hospital.

Thirty years later, Erasmo Dias told the Sheet that he did not regret the episode that marked his life. “I wouldn’t do anything different,” she said. “We only use tear gas to make you cry and cold water to cool your head: they are great things for those with a swollen head.”

No regrets, but with regrets. In 2004, for example, he considered himself worthy of compensation for the repercussions of the PUC invasion. “I am stigmatized for having defended Brazil tooth and nail against the rotten communist regime,” he said.

It was an Erasmo Dias at the end of his political career. In addition to being a secretary in the 1970s, he was a federal deputy (1979-1983, for Arena), state deputy (1987-1999, for the PDS and PPR) and councilor (2001-2004, for the PPB).

He died in 2010, aged 85, from stomach and liver cancer.

As a posthumous tribute, the government of Tarcísio de Freitas enacted this Wednesday (28) a law that names a road junction in Paraguaçu Paulista as “Deputy Erasmo Dias”.

The rector of PUC-SP, Maria Amália Pie Abib Andery, professors and students of the university signed a note of repudiation of the homage.