Bete Mendes remembers the persecution and the traumatic encounter with the torturer of the dictatorship

The actress and former deputy Beth Mendes spoke once again about one of the most difficult periods of his life by revisiting his activism against the military dictatorship and his reunion with the colonel Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustraresponsible for torturing her during the regime. While acting in the soap opera Beto Rockefellersuccess on TV Tupi in 1968, Bete secretly participated in the political resistance.

In an interview with Conversation with Bialhe recalled: “I had no idea about these things. First of all I didn’t know what television was. I started with theatre, then I was called to television and the soap opera became popular. Of course it wouldn’t work. And it didn’t work. They hunted down and arrested everyone. The stakes were very difficult.”

Under the code name Rosa, in honor of the revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg, the actress kept her activities in complete secrecy. “Not only for responsibility and conscience, but for the safety of others. At that time the situation was so violent in terms of repression that, if someone found out about a piece of news and commented on it to someone else, it became a risk”he explained.

Bete was arrested for the first time after being called to speak with the Captain Mauriziothen husband of Irene Ravache. “She was my godmother, who brought me to TV Tupi […] He told me that he wanted to talk to me, because I was suspected of participating (in the resistance), and that if I refused, everything would be normal. I agreed, all because of the naivety we had at the time.”

Saved only by a lack of evidence, she spent four days in solitary confinement: “It was so traumatic that I lost four kilos in four days. They released me as a suspect.” Years later, she would again be detained and tortured by Ustra. “He was a director, advisor and torturer in different regions of the country. He was considered one of the champions of torturers during the dictatorship. The story is as perverse as everything this man did”reported.

Elected federal deputy of the PT in 1983, Bete met Ustra again during an official trip to Uruguay with then president José Sarney. “This man, who had already resigned from the position of military attaché, went in full regalia, in full uniform, and showed up at the airport reception for us. The moment I saw him, all the torture came back,” the actress recalled.

The meeting had a great emotional impact. “I was desperate. I spent four days in Montevideo almost without sleep, taking cold showers, I was terrified. The only thing I was aware of was that I couldn’t report there, because I would ruin a slow democratization program. But I couldn’t remain silent. I sent a letter to Sarney, reporting the officer responsible for the torture and who had been rewarded.”

I wait:

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Source: Terra