Actor Who Played Tancredo Neves Gives His Opinion on Controversial Death: “Ego and Doctor’s Mistake”

In an interview with Hildegard Angel on TV channel 247, Othon Bastos commented on the controversy surrounding the death of Tancredo Neves. Elected president, he died without being able to take office in 1985. The actor played the politician in the film “The Patient”, by director Sérgio Rezende, broadcast on Globo.

“It was a medical error,” Othon says. “The ego of the doctors. ‘I’m going to operate on the president, I’m going to save the president.’ And in doing so, they killed the president. It was a huge medical error.”

“It was the crime of the white coat,” joked Hildegard. The presenter commented on the rumor of a political assassination. “For God’s sake, this version is the most absurd,” the artist reacted.

“He even said that Gloria Maria, a wonderful journalist, had said that Tancredo had been shot in the stomach,” the actor recalled. “That he had left the church with his wife, they had gone to mass, when a group of children ran to talk to him and in the middle was a dwarf who shot him.”

A respected politician from Minas Gerais, a member of the resistance to the military dictatorship, Tancredo Neves worked for the redemocratization of Brazil and was elected president by indirect vote, by the Electoral College, on January 15, 1985. Two months later, he had an attack of abdominal pain on the eve of taking office. In his place, Deputy José Sarney was sworn in.

Tancredo’s hospitalization was followed day and night by the press. After seven surgeries and 38 days of agony, he died on April 21, at the age of 75. “I didn’t deserve this,” he reportedly said. True or not, the phrase has entered the history of national politics.

The conduct of the treatment and the cause of death raised questions that persist to this day, nearly four decades later. Diverticulitis, cancer, and generalized infection were mentioned. Conspiracy theories have pointed to witchcraft and even murder.

The photo of the president-elect sitting among the medical team – published to calm the population, politicians and the media – has entered popular memory. The wake and burial of Tancredo Neves became one of the most appreciated events in the history of television journalism.

Source: Terra