Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustra (; 28 July 1932 – 15 October 2015) was a Brazilian

army officer An officer is a person who holds a position of authority as a member of an Military, armed force or Uniformed services, uniformed service. Broadly speaking, "officer" means a commissioned officer, a non-commissioned officer (NCO), or a warra ...

, politician and known and convicted torturer who served as a

colonel Colonel ( ; abbreviated as Col., Col, or COL) is a senior military Officer (armed forces), officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, a colon ...

in the

Brazilian Army The Brazilian Army (; EB) is the branch of the Brazilian Armed Forces responsible, externally, for defending the country in eminently terrestrial operations and, internally, for guaranteeing law, order and the constitutional branches, subordina ...

Biography

Born in

Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul Santa Maria is a municipality (''município'') in the central region of Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost state of Brazil. In 2020, its population was 283,677 inhabitants in a total area of . Santa Maria is the 5th biggest municipality in the ...

, Ustra was the head of the

DOI-CODI The Departamento de Operações de Informações — Centro de Operações de Defesa Interna (DOI-CODI; ) was the Brazilian intelligence and political repression agency during the military dictatorship of 1964–85. This period started on Ma ...

, an investigation division of the Second Army from 1970 to 1974. He became known by the codename Dr. Tibiriçá. While head of DOI-CODI, 47 people officially died, although further investigation attributed 502 tortures to the division under his administration. In 2008, Ustra became the first military official to be recognized, by a civil court in São Paulo, as a

torturer Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons including corporal punishment, punishment, forced confession, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimid ...

during the dictatorship. He continued to be politically active in military clubs, in defense of the

military dictatorship A military dictatorship, or a military regime, is a type of dictatorship in which Power (social and political), power is held by one or more military officers. Military dictatorships are led by either a single military dictator, known as a Polit ...

and anticommunist critics. He died at the age of 83 on 15 October 2015 of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an Inflammation, inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as Pulmonary alveolus, alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of Cough#Classification, productive or dry cough, ches ...

caused by multiple organ failure after several weeks in hospital in

Brasília Brasília ( ; ) is the capital city, capital of Brazil and Federal District (Brazil), Federal District. Located in the Brazilian highlands in the country's Central-West Region, Brazil, Central-West region, it was founded by President Juscelino ...

Legacy

Ustra has been praised on multiple occasions by the former

president of Brazil The president of Brazil (), officially the president of the Federative Republic of Brazil () or simply the ''President of the Republic'', is the head of state and head of government of Brazil. The president leads the executive branch of the ...

Jair Bolsonaro Jair Messias Bolsonaro (; born 21 March 1955) is a Brazilian politician and former military officer who served as the 38th president of Brazil from 2019 to 2023. He previously served as a member of Brazil's Chamber of Deputies (Brazil), Chamb ...

. On 17 April 2016, during the voting of the

impeachment Impeachment is a process by which a legislative body or other legally constituted tribunal initiates charges against a public official for misconduct. It may be understood as a unique process involving both political and legal elements. In Eur ...

Dilma Rousseff Dilma Vana Rousseff (; born 14 December 1947) is a Brazilian economist and politician who served as the 36th president of Brazil from 2011 until her impeachment and removal from office on 31 August 2016. She is the only woman to have held the ...

in the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourb ...

, Ustra was praised by then-deputy Bolsonaro in a speech before casting his vote, calling him "the dread of Dilma Rousseff". Rousseff, who was tortured at DOI-CODI, commented on Bolsonaro's tribute saying: "I was arrested in the 1970s. In fact, I knew the man he referred to well. He was one of the biggest torturers in Brazil, ..It's terrible to see someone voting in honor of the greatest torturer Brazil has known." On 8 August 2019 Bolsonaro, by then president, called him a "national hero" who "prevented

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

from falling into what the

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social ...

wants today". The Brazilian Government makes a R$15.307,90 monthly payment to Ustra's daughters.

Works

* Rompendo o Silêncio (1974) * A Verdade Sufocada (2006) − a memoir book about the

military dictatorship in Brazil The military dictatorship in Brazil (), occasionally referred to as the Fifth Brazilian Republic, was established on 1 April 1964, after a 1964 Brazilian coup d'état, coup d'état by the Brazilian Armed Forces, with support from the United Stat ...

References

1932 births 2015 deaths Brazilian colonels Brazilian anti-communists Far-right politics in Brazil Military dictatorship in Brazil People from Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul Deaths from pneumonia in the Federal District (Brazil) 20th-century Brazilian military personnel {{Brazil-mil-bio-stub