Case of torture during dictatorship reaches Inter-American Court of Human Rights

A murdered partner, a child on the way, and two military coups. This was Denise Peres Crispim’s life in the early 1970s, during the most brutal period of political repression in South America. A political activist, Ms. Crispim was one of many who were persecuted by Brazil’s military dictatorship.

She is the survivor of an act of violence committed by the Brazilian state against her and her then-partner, Eduardo Collen Leite, also known as Bacuri. More than half a century later, her case has finally reached the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. 

Ms. Crispim, 72, hopes this will finally bring her justice and reparations. 

Living in Italy as a refugee, she agreed to tell The Brazilian Report her story, which is one of hardship, anguish, and above all, survival. 

She points out that, sadly, Bacuri was not so lucky. After undergoing 109 days of, physical and psychological torture, on December 8, 1970, Denise’s partner was forced to read his own death sentence aloud before he was executed, becoming yet another victim of the repressive Brazilian military regime.

“As long as there is no justice, I feel that he’s still imprisoned here,” she says. “He also needs to see justice done, wherever he is now.” 

Months before Bacuri’s death, it was Denise’s turn to be tortured. 

She was arrested on July 23, 1970, when she was six months pregnant with her first child. Even so, she received no special treatment; Ms. Crispim was subjected to physical and psychological torture and gave birth in captivity, in a maternity ward run by a member of Brazil’s military.

While many of the atrocities she was subjected to in prison, with her child in tow, have been blocked from her memory due to the intense trauma, Ms. Crispim has spoken of receiving beatings from “entire crews of male officers.” 

During our interview, she was visibly overcome with emotion when recalling her time in custody.

Such cruelty, however, was not unusual during Brazil’s “years of lead”. In 2014, reports from the National Truth Commission, set up in 2011 during the government of President Dilma Rousseff,...