BRAZILIAN BAR ASSOCIATION

ORDEM DOS ADVOGADOS DO BRASIL (OAB)

Address: Rua Marechal Câmara, 240, Centro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ
Themes: Civil and Corporate Participation; Political-cultural Resistance and Memory
Translated from the Portuguese by Lara Norgaard

The Brazilian Lawyers Institute was founded in the 19^th century and was the origin of what would later become the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB). Made official by Decree no. 19,408 on November 18, 1930 – which was established after the 1930 coup that put Getúlio Vargas into power – the OAB only attained efficient standardization and selection mechanisms in 1963, through Law no. 4,215. That is when it became the entity best able to represent and regulate Brazilian lawyers. Practicing law anywhere in Brazil requires registering with the association. Today, the OAB contains more than 900 thousand registered professionals.

OAB’s position during the dictatorship after 1964 started with full support for the coup and soon transformed into a critical stance. By the second half of the 1970s, the organization directly participated in the struggle for human rights.

In the days following the 1964 coup, the new government gave lawyers in the OAB high hopes. They believed that military rule would lead to a much-desired “cleansing” of the political system, ending corruption and subversive action. In the minutes from a regular meeting that the Federal Board of the OAB called on April 7, 1964, one notes the euphoria shared by the participants, deemed “brave crusaders for judicial order and the Constitution” by OAB president Carlos Povina Cavalcanti. Cavalcanti himself said he felt “at peace with his conscience.” The army’s removal of João Goulart from the presidency was seen as the surest protection for democratic institutions against “subversive forces,” responsible for the government’s “state of lawlessness.” Still on April 7, the president of the OAB stated his views:

[…]anticipating the collapse of subversive forces that openly planned through governmental channels to destroy the principles of democracy and establish a totalitarian regime, one that would end all human freedoms, we had the clear-mindedness and patriotism to warn the constituent powers of the Republic to defend our deeply threatened judicial order and Constitution during the memorable meeting on March 20. With God’s mercy, today we can proclaim that Brazil, without leaving its constitutional orbit, has survived and remains under the aegis of the Rule of Law now that the combined evils of communism and socialism have been eradicated. […] God willing, a nonpartisan government that does not lower itself to the level of demagogues will allow us serve this class and Brazil (Ata da Reunião Ordinária do Conselho Federal da OAB, 7 abr. 1964, p. 3, apud Rollemberg, 2008, p. 58-59).

The first critiques of the military government on record took place in 1965, according to the Federal Board’s meeting notes. Arguments made by the OAB vice president, Alberto Barreto de Melo, reveal even more extreme right-wing views as he called for increasingly radical political persecution of members of the previous government:

[…] The nation watches, appalled, as the 1964 movement falls apart, like Tantalus being punished for his hubris, as it tries to consolidate itself electorally without having dismantled a political machine made up of corrupt and subversive individuals. Political leaders who campaigned for and led alongside the president who was removed last year remain politically strong in the revolutionary government; its officials hold the highest positions throughout the Republic. Revolution without reformulation of institutions and the substitution of the men that make them up is all show and, even, in poor taste (Discurso de Alberto Barreto de Melo, Ata da Reunião Ordinária do Conselho Federal da OAB, 27 abr. 1965 apud Rolemberg, 2008, p. 65-66).

Though a few isolated stances stood out from those of fellow counselors, the OAB as an institution would only break away from the dictatorship in 1972. The institutional sign of that break can be seen in the Curitiba Declaration, which is based on the opening speech of OAB president Cavalcanti Neves. The document solidified the OAB as part of the struggle for re-democratization. It defends the reinstatement of judicial protections and of habeas corpus in full, the revival of “balance between State security and individual rights, in accordance to the highest tenets of justice,” restoration of the “freedom to exercise the professional activities of law” and respect for human beings. In terms of political repression, the document states:

Repression is criminal. Even when carried out against political enemies, it should occur only under the rule of law and with respect to the physical and moral integrity of prisoners and in accordance with the right to defense – most notably, that of communication from prison to the appropriate judicial authority (Declaração de Curitiba, Ata da Reunião Ordinária do Conselho Federal da OAB, 26 jun. 1972 apud Rolemberg, 2008, p. 87).

The Curitiba Declaration also criticized the Médici administration’s “economic and social progress,” stating: “if it is true that peace and security are indispensable to development, then it is equally true that peace and security do not exist without freedom and justice.”

The OAB had begun to position itself more critically towards the regime in 1970 when it came out against prior censorship for books and newspapers. In the years that followed, it began to act in defense of political prisoners and denounce practices of torture and arbitrary imprisonment. In 1976, when journalist Vladimir Herzog was found murdered, the OAB sparked the campaign for the return to democratic law.

Because of its critical actions towards the dictatorship in the 1970s, the former OAB building in Rio de Janeiro – which now holds the Rio de Janeiro Law Assistance Center (CAARJ) and the Rio de Janeiro State Truth Commission (CEV-Rio) – became the target of an attack on August 27, 1980. A letter bomb addressed to the president of the Federal Board of the OAB, Eduardo Seabra Fagundes, killed his secretary, Luda Monteiro da Silva. The next day, the OAB published the following official statement:

In light of the tragic attack on the Brazilian Bar Association, a true assault on our institution that took the life of a model employee and considering the fact that, unfortunately, this is just one more example of escalating violence in Brazil, the moment has come for lawyers, in the name of civil society, to begin to react to the state of things in this country, which are in total opposition to the democratic and peaceful Brazilian people. The Brazilian Bar Association resolves: 1) to declare August 28, 1980 the National Day of Struggle and Protest of Brazilian Lawyers against acts of terror; 2) consequently, to urge all lawyers not to carry out professional activities on that day, except to prevent the loss of rights or to demand the freedom of illegally detained persons; 3) to invite the everyday people, lawyers, judges, members of the Public Ministry, and law students to attend the funeral for the sorely missed Lyda Monteiro da Silva (OAB Decreta Dia Nacional de Luto, 28 ago. 1980, p. 20).

The attack on the OAB building was not an isolated event. Others included the violence against Riocentro, the Brazilian Press Association (ABI), and the newspaper O Pasquim. On the same day as the attack against the OAB, another three letter bombs were sent to different addresses in the city of Rio de Janeiro. One arrived at the office of Antônio Carlos de Carvalho, a city councilperson for the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), gravely wounding an employee, José Ribamar Sampaio de Freitas. Another was sent to a branch of the newspaper Tribuna da Luta Operária. The final letter bomb, which did not go off, was addressed to the National Supply Agency (SUNAB).

To deal with repercussions from the attacks, the communication strategy of Figueiredo’s military government was to blame the attacks on leftist extremists. The Federal Police (PF) was assigned to investigate the events. An inquiry found the perpetrator to be Ronald Watters, former official at the Navy Intelligence Agency (CENIMAR). Seven months later, however, all charges were dropped due to lack of evidence.

Nearly forty years later, the National Truth Commission (CNV) and the Rio de Janeiro State Truth Commission (CEV-Rio) reopened the case of the attack at the OAB. CEV-Rio released the results of its research in September 2015 in the form of a collective interview: Colonel Fred Perdigão Pereira from the Army Intelligence Center (CIE) organized the attack, Sergeant Guilherme Pereira do Rosário manufactured the device, and sergeant Magno Cantarino Mota personally delivered the letter bomb to the secretary of the OAB.

In addition to two plaques dedicated to Lyda Monteiro at the CEV-Rio building, the president of the Commission symbolically honors the victim of the attack by using as his office the room where the secretary worked. The table where Lyda sat when the letter bomb exploded can be found in the OAB Federal Board Museum in Brasília.