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Reading 6. A.J. Langguth, Hidden Terrors
- University of Pennsylvania Press
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Chapter Ill, Reading 6 Training Regardless of his original motivation, a torturer can hardly be effective without the development of skills. Much torture is crudely administered, but sometimes its practitioners have been keenly trained. In this telling passage from his book Hidden Terrors, a treatment of American foreign policy in Brazil and Uruguay in the 1960s and early 1970s, A. ]. Langguth describes how prisoners became the "teaching tools" at a true "school for scandal." Notice in particular how the students reacted to the victims' pain. Murilo Pinto da Silva had been a schoolboy in Belo Horizonte19 when Dan Mitrione20 arrived to show the police how to be more effective. Nine years later, as a member of the Commandos of National Liberation (COLINA), Murilo was trapped with five comrades in their Belo hideout by a police cordon. In the exchange ofgunfire, two policemen were killed. None of the rebels was hit. Murilo was charged with four crimes: unlawful possession of a gun; being a member of an illegal association; armed actions; assassination. As a result, he also played a role in the training of Brazil's police. In August of 1969, Murilo and his colleagues were transferred from prison in Belo to the Policia Especial of the army's Vila Militar, a jail for political prisoners in Realango, on the outskirts of Rio. On October 8, Murilo was led from the jail with nine other prisoners and ordered to wait in an open courtyard. Seven of those nine were also political prisoners from Belo, including a fellow member of COLINA, Irany Campos, who had taken the code name Costa. Two of the others were Brazilian soldiers who had been court-martialed. One had stolen a gun. Murilo did not know the offense with which the second soldier was charged. Being taken from the cell was always a bad sign. But the mood among the guards in the courtyard this day wasjovial, and Murilo began to relax. There would be no torture today. Then one soldier passed by carrying a heavy stick of the kind used for the parrot's perch.21 Another carried a metal box about eighteen inches long, which Murilo recognized as a generator for electric shocks. It was capable of greater precision than the field telephone.22 Still, Murilo was not alarmed. It all looked so routine, so passionless. Then he overheard a corporal asking, "Are they the stars of the show?" A soldier laughed and said, "I think they will be." The joke alerted him. Something bad was going to happen after all. 128 Chapter III The prisoners were led single file into a low building and told to stop outside a closed door. From beyond the threshold, Murilo heard the laughing and talking ofmany men. Itwas high-pitched and sounded expectant. The prisoners stood very still, a guard beside each of them. From inside the room, Murilo heard an officer giving instructions. He recognized the voice of Lieutenant Aylton, an officer who had greatly impressed Murilo over the weeks he had spent at Vila Militar. As Aylton oversaw the beatings and shocks, he displayed a calm and control that a less assured college student could only envy. Setting up the tortures, Aylton always seemed so-odd description but true-serene. Now Aylton was displaying that same poise before a crowd of men, speaking with absolute self-confidence. Who could hate a man like that? Murilo could make out only a little of what he was saying. "Approach them as though we are their friends. As though we're on their side." That was followed by what seemed to be a lengthy explanation of interrogation methods, but Aylton's voice rose and fell, and Murilo missed most of the details. The lieutenant then raised his voice to say, "Now we're presenting you with a demonstration of the clandestine activities in the country." There was a stir at the door, and one by one six of the prisoners were led inside. Each young man had his own guard, an army private or a corporal . The room looked to be an officer's mess. Six men were seated at each table. Murilo guessed there were about eighty men in all. Theywore uniforms, some from the army, some from the air force. They seemed young: lieutenants and noncoms, sergeants. At the front was a stage that made the room look like a cabaret. The impression was heightened by the skillful way LieutenantAylton was using the microphone. One side of...