12/24/2023 – 13:57
Fifty years after being murdered during the Brazilian military dictatorship, two students from the University of São Paulo (USP) were honored by the university with honorary degrees this month. Killed in 1973, Alexandre Vannucchi Leme and Ronaldo Mouth Queiroz were students at the Geosciences Institute (IGc) in the 1970s and also activists in the USP student movement.
The honor is part of the Diplomação da Resistência project, an initiative by the Dean of Inclusion and Belonging (PRIP) and São Paulo councilor Luna Zarattini (PT), in partnership with the USP Institute of Geosciences.
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The two posthumous diplomas are the first among 33 tributes that the university must promote through the project for students who were murdered by the military dictatorship. The objective, informed the institution, is “to repair injustices and honor the memory of former students”.
“Diplomating students who were murdered during the dictatorship means repairing a historical debt that the university owes to these students. Many of them stood out academically, politically and, for obvious reasons, were unable to finish their studies because they were dead”, said Renato Cymbalista, coordinator of the Directorate of Human Rights and Memory, Justice and Reparation Policies of the Dean of Inclusion and Belonging. “It is very important that the university recognizes this enormous rupture, this tragedy, and places itself in a position of solidarity and empathy with the families, friends and relatives of the victims and also manages to position itself as an institution that does not accept the violation of human rights”, he added, in an interview with Brazil Agency.
In 2013, the university created its own Truth Commission to examine and clarify the serious human rights violations that were committed against professors, students and university employees during the Brazilian military dictatorship. At the final reportthe Truth Commission concluded that the military dictatorship was responsible for the deaths of 39 students, six teachers and two university employees.
“One of the recommendations of the USP Truth Commission was precisely the honorary degree. Something that we are now following,” said Cymbalista.
Alexandre Vannucchi Leme
Alexandre Vannucchi Leme was just 22 years old and studying Geology at USP. when he was arrested, tortured and killed by agents from the Information Operations Detachment – Internal Defense Operations Center (DOI-Codi) in São Paulo, a body subordinate to the Army.
Born in Sorocaba, he was the son of teachers and was active in the National Liberation Action (ALN) at the time of his arrest. According to State Truth Commission, which took place at the Legislative Assembly of São Paulo, Leme was last seen on March 15, 1973, attending classes at USP. On March 16, he was arrested by DOI-Codi agents and subjected to intense torture sessions. A police investigation opened at the time reported that he was arrested “to investigate the subversive activities of the ALN”. The day after his arrest, Leme died as a result of torture.
The student was buried as a pauper and the cause of death announced by the government was being run over, which, according to the military version, occurred while Vannucchi was trying to escape the police. It was only in 2014 that his death certificate was rectified, with the information that he had been killed at DOI-Codi by torture.
Ronaldo Mouth Queiroz
Ronaldo Mouth Queiroz was also a Geology student and linked to ALN. He was president of the USP Central Student Directory (DCE) and, under the pseudonym Mc Coes, produced an independent newspaper that made good-natured political criticism.
Queiroz was shot dead by agents from the Department of Political and Social Order (Dops), on April 6, 1973, three weeks after Vannucchi's death, while he was at a bus stop. The official version said that Queiroz died after an exchange of fire with military personnel, but witnesses who were at the same bus stop said they saw him being executed.
Granting an honorary degree to these students is a path towards remembering and repairing this period. However, the family and friends of the victims of the military dictatorship in Brazil still continue the fight for justice and conviction. “Brazil was not able to do justice. He was unable to explicitly condemn the dictatorship's executioners. This is because, when we had our amnesty law, we gave amnesty to those who had been persecuted by the dictatorship, who were in exile or who were in hiding, as well as the torturers. And this had some very problematic consequences because we were never really able to achieve justice as, for example, happened in Argentina, where perpetrators went to jail and are paying for their crimes. That didn’t happen here in Brazil,” said Cymbalista.
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