SOME OF THE VICTIMS

prisons where "specialist' teams work.

There is, for instance, the Randeirantes Operation headed by the notorious Sergio Paranhos Fleury, one best known leaders 'Death Squad'.

There is CENIMAR (a naval 'information' centre) which operates on the 5th floor of the Ministry of the Yavy in Rio de Janeiro-next door to the United States' naval mission.

Other "special torture centres include:

The UB, headquarters of tne Second Army in Sao Paulo, rua Tutoia 921; Ilha das Flores (Flower Island) Ilha Grande in Guanabara; the Vila Militar, headquarters of the 10th company of military police and the First Army Company; prison of the 12th infantry regiment in Belo Horizonte (Minas Gerais); the Tiradentes prison in Sao Paulo; the Linhares prison in Juiz de Fora; the prison at Porto Alegre.

There ale the prisons at Recife, Fortaleza and Salvador; the CODI (Operations Centre for Internal Defence)' with its branches in each state, especially its headquarters in Guanabara; the OI (Integration Operation) a fusion of elements from the OBAN (Operacao Bandeirantes) and the military police in Sao Paulo; there is also the prison of the motorized regiment of Sao Paulo (REC-MEC).

Operacao Bandeirantes (OBAN or OB) is a specialized school for torture formed in September 1969 by a group of 80 extreme right-wingers from the army, navy, air force and police. OBAN works in collaboration with other extreme rightist organizations such as CRUNA (Nationalist Crusade) and CCC (Commandos to Hunt Communists).

The 'Death Squads', mentioned on Monday, were formed in October 1 and named after Milton Le Cocq, a policeman who had been murdered in Rio de Janeiro. Originally known as the Le Coca Society' this organization has acquired a huge property state of Minas Gerais its (La Fazenda Piripora) in the It also publishes its own newspaper "O Gringo', whose honorary president David Nasser, director and editor-inchief of the weekly Cruzeiro' and member of the International Press Association.

Such 'Death Squads' exist in every Brazilian state and are under the protection of the authorities. They habitually telephone the newspapers in advance telling them where a victim's body will be found.

Nevertheless, out of 123 murders attributed to the 'Death Squad' of Sao Paulo between November 1968 and June 1970, only five have been investigated by magistrates. • Of the other murder squads the activities of the Commandos to Hunt Communists were SO horrible-even for Brazil—-that public outcry forced an official inquiry.

The judge in charge of this inquiry-Agamemnon Duarte declared in June last year that the American CIA was behind the Commandos to Hunt Communists. He said, among other things, 'the constant inyolvement of the CIA in terrorist acts throughout Latin America, in Mexico and in southern Patagonia is well known.' In July, 1970, the International Commission of Jurists estimated that there were 12,000 political prisoners in Brazilian jails.

That year-in June-40 Brazilian prisoners were released in exchange for the kidnapped West German ambassador Ehrenfried on Holleben. Top: the work of the Death Squad: chair, who was subjected to terrible One of these was 24-yearold economics student Vera Silva Araujo Magalhaes who had been arrested on March 6, 1970, in Rio de Janeiro by CODI (Operations Centre for Internal Defence — military She was tortured initially two weeks after her arrest. She had been wounded by a bullet in the head and was given a minimum of medical attention before she was able to unders'. Above: Vera Magainaes in wheel- food, the 'dragon chair' • torture. (electric chair) means of torgo interrogation.

Tortures began on March 20, 1970, at the army police headquarters, at the CODI headquarters, rua Barao de Mesquita in the Tijuca area of Rio de Janeiro, by Major Gomez Carneiro Ziembinski, by soldiers Félipe, José Alfredo Poe, Sergeant Volio and Major Fontenelle.

She was subjected to all sorts of physical ill-treatment as well as psychological torture.

She remained for more than seven hours on the pau de arara' and was given different voltages of electric shocks during this period; water was put in her mouth and nose; she was beaten with a truncheon and whipped all over the body, including the genital areas.

She was then taken to infirmary and later to military hospital.

At the military hospital, she was once again examined. She was only registered as a patient on her first visit for attention to her head wound. Her stay after torture was not put in the hospital records.

The most serious consequence of the torture was paralysis of her legs.

Miss i Magalhaes witnessed the torturing of other people in the same barracks and during the same period. They were Daniel Aarao Reis, Pedro Alves, Regina Farah, Efigenia, Eustâquio.

They were tortured by Major Gomez Carneiro Ziembinski and by soldiers Ailton Joachim, Marco Antonio Povoreli and by Sergeant Andrade Oliveira and Captain Guimaraes.

The torture consisted of electric shocks, 'pau de arara', beatings, sexual ill-treatment, near-drowning and sleep deprivation, The torturers forced the detainees to stay naked in a given position in a freezing cold place and doused them with water. After ten hours of this one position, without ture was emploved.

Another method of torture consisted in keeping the person hanging head downwards while being beaten and subjected to electric shocks.

Another consisted in applying hot metal plates to the legs and arms - this caused wounds which still have not healed.

In the military hospital doctors gave Miss Magalhaes no medical care, contenting themselves with giving sedatives which weakened her psychologically. At the army police barracks no attention was paid to hygiene; there were rats and mice in the cells and in the infirmaries.

Food in the military police prison of Tijuca was impossible to swallow and hygiene was non-existent. Medical attention was lacking and the doctors are in attendance only to control the amount of torture to which a patient may be submitted l or to prescribe sedatives to aid in interrogation. Medical attention is only given in cases of serious or contagious illnesses.

Miss Magalhaes' lawyer, Dr Evaristo, had great difficulty in getting permission to see her and was not allowed to go into the interrogatioin room. He could not contact his client until the torture stage was completed. Only then, with the court's permission, can a lawyer visit his client in prison, but this is always difficult to arrange. The time limits set by the law were never respected.

She received very brief visits from her family while in hospital, but these were always These the presence of CODI officers. Neither relatives nor lawyers are allowed into interrogation rooms. In prison, visits are controlled; as she was held in the military police barracks and in the hospital, visits were very irregular. In view of her physical condition, the authorities wanted to prevent her family from seeing her and she saw them only three times in three months.

Miss Magalhaes was hrought for the first time before a judge in the military tribunal after a month and a half of detention-her trial was already underway when she was arrested. But her case is an exception: generally the detained person is not brought before a judge until he has served approximately one year's detention.

She was tried and then released on June 15, 1970. CONTINUED TOMORROW

February Anthony B. Herbert was