THE PARROT'S PERCH MERCADO VICENTE DA

professor, was arrested on March 3, 1969, in Sao Paulo.

He was tortured throughout March in the Military Police barracks, rua Tutoia, near rua Abilio Soares, and on the third floor of the DEOPS headquarters in Sao Paulo, by successive teams under the command of General Luiz Felipe, Captain Antonio Carlos Pivatto and officers Newton o Fernandes and Simonetti.

Perera forms of • Electric the neck, vertebral areas, toes and the feet. • Introduction ments into the of the body. • Olher Blows to the forms • Physical and torture to third latives, friends and clients.

He was present at torture sessions involving other prisoners at the Military Police quarters and at the DEOPS in the Tiradentes prison from March 3, 1969, until January 13, 1971 (the date on which he was released).

He was brought on March 3 1969 to the Military Police quarters and from there to the DEOPS on March 18, 1969, returned to the military police on March 20 and then brought to Presidio Tiradentes on July 10 1969.

His interrogation took place In the military police barracks, in the DEOPS and at the military tribunal before Judge Nelson da Silva Guimaraes.

He received no medical aid; the only assistance available was dispensed by doctors who were fellow prisoners, such as Dr Antonio Carlos Madeira.

He did not receive any visit from his lawyer whilst interrogated by the police and during the police inquiry-from March 3 1969 until July 10 1969. He was transferred to the Miradentes Prison after the state of 'incommunicability' had been lifted-July 10 1969.

He received no visits from members of his family until after July 10. Such visits were always in public and had to be authorized beforehand by Judge Nelson da Silva Guimaraes.

Eleven months after his arrest he was brought before the military tribunal judge but he was not tried, simply released along with a group of others.

Thirty-one-year-old econo mist Ladislas Dowbor was arrested in Sao Paulo on April 21, 1970, by the Bandeirantes Operation.

Torture -particularly "pau de arara'*-was inflicted on him from April 21, 1970, at the Bandeirantes Operation, at the DEOPS in Sao Paulo (in rua Tutoia and Praca General Osorio) by Colonel Waldir Coelho of CENIMAR, by the Bandeirantes Operation and by the Death Squad in Sao Paulo.

He witnessed torture being inflicted by Colonel Waldir Coelho of OB (Operacao BanCODI, and of DEOPS in Sao Paulo, and members of the Death Squad, in September 1968 and from April to May 1970, both in the OBAN (same as OB) and DEOPS headquarters.

This consisted • Face hocker. • 'Pau de arara'.

•: HectriC chock.

He was not taken to prison but was simply interrogated in interrogation centres in April and May 1970. He was kept in solitary confinement underwent various torture, including: shocks, mainly on head, tongue, ears, column, genital the soles of of instrugenital areas of ill treatpsychological parties: reAbove: Military Police In Brazil, who are responsible for the torture, physical and psychological, of political prisoners. and given a radiography examination to check his physical condition after aara a sessine of 'pau de DEOPS.

A strait-jacket was put on him and he was given injections and his wounds, bleeding as a result of the torture he had undergone, were treated.

He was kept incommunicado and never received any visits or legal assistance from his lawyer.

He was visited once by his brother-in-law in interrogation room for three minutes.

EXECUTIONS Twenty-seven-year-old lawyer and journalist Lucio Flavio Uchoa Regueira was arrested on April 21, 1970, in Rio de Janeiro by the Operations Centre for Internal He was tortured from April 21 untıl April 25 1970 at the Military Police barracks, rua Barao de Mesquita, by Major Gomez Carneiro, Captain Ziembinski, Lieutenants Volio, Timoteo and Costa Lima.

He underwent various forms of torture: • Electric shocks to the eyes, mouth, genital areas and anus • Introduction of a stick in the anus. • Immersion in water point of near drowing. • 'Pau de arara'.

Blows all over the body. • Injection of 'truth serum'.

The tortures were not used in isolation but in combinawards, he was tortured with electric shocks and beatings to the body. Throughout his period of imprisonment he was psychologically tortured -simulated executions, constant threats of physical torture. He was woken up at all hours of the night, a black hood was placed over his head and he was brought to a place where executions were simulated. This lasted throughout the nine months' detention. In this way, they tried to get him to reveal information about individuals and meeting places and tried to weaken him psychologically by keeping him in a constant state of fear.

Regueira underwent torture throughout his detention and afterwards declared that the terrible atmosphere in Brazilian prisons is due to the fact that prisoners are forced to be present while fellow prisoners are tortured.

Throughout his imprisonment, at the military police barracks, he constantly saw the very people who had tortured him torturing others. In addition to better-known methods of torture (neardrowning, electric shocks, 'pau de arara'), one prisoner Fayal de Lira also underwent the 'mad dentist' torture, name given to this particular method of brutality by the torturers themselves.

This consisted of keeping the mouth open forcibly with an instrument whilst Fayal was attached to a 'dragon chair, his torturers meanwhile used a dentist's drill and electric shock treatment on him.

Regueira says that he saw the drill break three of his companion's teeth; but the latter, despite the pain and several attacks of fainting, remained strong until the end. A doctor saw him, revived him with an injection and indicated that the torture could continue.

Regueira said that he had to listen to Fayal's cries and the torturers' laughter for more than an hour, and it was the most painful session he ever witnessed. He was himself linked by an electric wire to the 'dragon chair' to which Fayal was attached and also received the electric shocks.

This torture session took place approximately a fortnight after his arrest. Fayal was in his third month of torture.

Regueira was held in the army prison from April 21 to June 3 1970, at the Regiment of Infantry School of the Vila Militar from June 15 1970 until January 8 1971, at the DEOPS in Guanabara from June 3 to June 15 1970, at the army police barracks in Vila Militar from January 8 to January I1 1971 and at the air-force base at Galeao from January Il to January 14 1971.

He was kept in small cells without windows and he had not once seen the sun. Each cell held many prisoners.

The torture rooms were very cold and prisoners were kept naked during interrogation. Torture was carried out by specialized teams which worked in relays when the sessions were unusually long (the shortest session lasted three hours).

Regueira received no medical attention. The doctors in the torture chambers were there to diagnose the resistance capacity of the victims for the succeeding session; there was no medical attention at the end of the session or during the period of detention as a whole.