Lula government publishes right of reply for text by Bolsonaro administration that exalted Major Curió – 06/12/2023 – Politics

The Lula government (PT) published this Monday (12) on its social networks the right of reply by relatives of victims of Sebastião Curió Rodrigues de Moura, an Army reserve colonel known as Major Curió, for a post made during the administration of Jair Bolsonaro (PL).

On May 5, 2020, then under the command of Fabio Wajngarten, Secom (Secretary of Communication of the Presidency) published a text in which it classified as “heroes of Brazil” the public agents who acted against the Guerrilha do Araguaia in the 1970s.

The publication was accompanied by an image of the meeting, which took place the day before at the Planalto Palace, between Bolsonaro and Curió, who headed the repression campaign in Araguaia. Between 1973 and 1974, the former colonel had direct participation in the persecution, execution and torture of PC do B guerrillas who operated between the north of Tocantins and the southeast of Pará.

Relatives of victims of the military filed a lawsuit in the 8th Federal Civil Court of São Paulo against the Union and against Curió, who died in 2022 at the age of 87, claiming the right of reply. The Bolsonaro government appealed the decision, but was unsuccessful.

In a communiqué this Monday, the Lula government stated that it “completely agrees with the court order that determined the restoration of the truth and dignity of the victims by determining the publication of the reparation.”

“It is with satisfaction that we make this historic reparation”, said Secom.

In addition to misinforming and treating as “honorable the most repulsive moment in the country’s recent history”, said the secretariat, the post treated as a hero “the man who ordered the arrest, torture and execution of Brazilian citizens who defended democracy during the military regime , especially those who acted in the Araguaia guerrilla, in the region of Tocantins, Pará and Maranhão”.

The text reproduced on Secom’s social networks states that “the Brazilian government, in acting against the Araguaia guerrilla, violated human rights, practiced torture and homicides, being condemned by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights for such facts. One of the participants in these violations was Major Bullfinch and, therefore, can never be called a hero. Secom rectifies the illegal disclosure it made on the subject, in respect for the right to truth and memory”.