Anacleta! Let's have direct elections!

Now everybody with Chacrinha!
Direct elections now! Direct elections now!
DIRECT ELECTIONS: TOP ISSUE
Attention! Attention! Teresinha!
WE WANT DIRECT ELECTIONS NOW!
I can't hear you, Teresinha!
Thank you very much! Direct elections in Brazil! Thank you very much!
This sea of people WANTS TO VOTE FOR PRESIDENT
In April of 1984, military dictatorship completed 20 years.
I was 16. So was the Institutional Act nº5.
It was almost like a condemnation. An entire generation condemned to silence, to ignorance.
In school, we never talked about politics, it was forbidden.
Neither at home. It was better not to talk.
But, for us, it had always been like that.
Freedom was something we learned to keep between the lines.
At most, something written on the back of a bathroom door.
When I saw on TV the crowd at the rally for direct elections…
I got excited like any teenager gets when she sees a huge gathering.
A million people, I couldn't miss out.
My friends and I took the subway to Candelária Church.
I'm sure all these people with their hands up never voted for president, am I right?
Right!
Put your hands up if you never voted for president!
As I got off the train, I heard the speakers...
echoing what was being said on stage inside the station.
And as I emerged from the subway…
a sea of people covered Presidente Vargas Avenue and cheered in a way…
I had only seen in soccer games in Maracanã Stadium.
We don't only have young people here with us today.
Here is a 90 year-old man, Sobral Pinto!
I want to speak to the millions of Brazilians...
On the speakers, the voice I heard was my grandfather's voice.
… who want to reconquer our citizenship through voting.
I want to speak to the Brazilian nation through this crowd of one million of my fellow countrymen...
we want to see restored in Brazil...
the precept of Article 1 of the first paragraph of the Federal Constitution:
"All power comes from the people and in its name must be exerted."
That's when I started to realize the dimension of Sobral Pinto.
This is my message.
This is my wish.
This is my purpose.
SOBRAL
the man that had no price
Dr. Sobral, how are human rights in Brazil today?
They're better. They're not totally respected...
because as long as there's a military dictatorship, there will be risk for human rights.
Is there, still?
Still? Of course!
We have a general in the presidency of the country…
we are threatened with indirect elections...
with candidates that positively do not represent public opinion.
And these indirect elections are maintained by the military dictatorship.
Do you have hope in the direct elections, Dr. Sobral?
Of course I do.
If I didn't, I wouldn't be fighting for them the way I am.
Twenty more years have passed...
and if you looked around, you would not see not even a trace of Sobral.
People jostling one another on the streets...
loads of absurd headlines on the newspapers everyday…
and in spite of this, it all felt numb…
even worse, I think, than in the times of censorship.
It was a time of cynicism.
And I began to lack that image of the lone man…
in black hat and suit, always going against the twisted things.
I knew I still didn't know anything, like most people.
That's when I decided to look for Sobral.

In 1999 I was doing research for my master thesis.
Fernando Augusto Fernandes, lawyer
The research was on trials of political prisoners in republican days in Brazil.
So I went to the Superior Military Court searching for the records they had. 
The first thing I did was to look in these files...
for a defense by Sobral Pinto.
When I first opened the file I realized...
it was the first time anyone had access to it.
And I realized that wouldn't last long.
So I decided to preserve the material.
I made a copy of the tape that had Sobral Pinto's defense.
And I hid the tape in the Court's bathroom, in a slit...
behind the toilet, I put the tape there.
And when they listened to Sobral Pinto's defense...
denouncing torture...
all they could see of my research material was apprehended...
my briefcase was smashed open to withhold the tapes that were in it.
When I left the room after being searched...
nobody payed attention to me anymore.
So I went to the bathroom got the tape that was there...
went downstairs and left, came back to Rio de Janeiro immediately.
I went straight to the airport, off to Rio de Janeiro.
The tapes that survived the search and apprehension...
are in an archive here in the office.
A protected archive.
The emotion I felt when I found this material...
when the recorder started playing...
Sobral's defense… it was something indescribable.
We now give the word to Dr. Sobral Pinto.
Superior Military Court
1976
Regarding Oswaldo Pacheco, there's absolutely no proof…
no proof presented in court.
To condemn someone based solely on a forced confession...
And there is proof of that, this man appeared in court still full of ecchymoses…
he appeared in court with terrible wounds.
So, who made these bruises? Who practiced theses tortures…
on this man, imprisoned and incommunicable?
It's not possible that Your Honours can accept this statement...
from a confession extracted under these conditions as evidence.
No, Your Honours, it is not possible that this should continue to persist in this country.
During the dictatorship, Sobral meant...
Eny Moreira, lawyer
the salvation of some lives.
At the time in Brazil he represented...
Rogério Duarte, ex-political prisoner
the idea of being, let's say, a guarantee of the existence of the law.
A guarantee of the existence of rights.
He was himself the embodiment of rights.
In India there is a figure called Dharmaraj, who is the god of justice...
and he is, let's say, almost a manifestation of this divinity of justice.


There's a very interesting episode in daddy's life…
Gilda Sobral Pinto, Sobral Pinto's daughter
that happened in Além Paraíba, where he lived.
A quarrel between two young men...
in which one killed the other, but in self-defense.
My dad was in the garden with my grandmother...
when he saw this young man being dragged by policemen and...
being beaten up and he became indignant.
He started to shout at the policemen to stop the beating...
and he said that on that day he was taken by the desire to become a defender of justice.
He acted like this his entire life.
Guilherme Fiuza, Sobral Pinto's grandson
A guy who is a gush of conviction…
A gush of loyalty to his own consciousness.
This thing is an emanation of power.
Dr. Sobral Pinto, what do you think of this testimony that was read here today?
I think this testemony should be published in full...
by the entire Brazilian press.
And don't say there's no space...
because when it comes to a crime this serious...
there should be space in any self-respecting newspaper.
Do you have hope that the torturers will be punished?
I have hope, I trust in justice, I trust in the final victory of good.
Thank you very much.
Is this going to be aired in full?
I hope so.
I wonder…
Bye, thank you.
What could you tell us about Dr. Sobral Pinto?
Dr. Sobral Pinto?
Luis Carlos Prestes, communist leader
He's a great fighter for freedom in general...
and he respects others' opinions.
He thinks every citizen has the right to defend their ideas and expose them.
And he's very persistent in his role as a defender.
I saved my one year-old daughter who was...
together with her mother in a prison in Berlin...
I needed a paternity certificate.
And the chief of staff, a certain Mrs. Odete...
from Minister Macedo Soares's Office...
resisted until the last second, but with his persistence...
he managed to take the notary to the prison...
so I could sign this certificate.
I owe it to him for saving my daughter from the Nazis.
I was born in a prison in Berlin...
where my mother had been deported to...
by the Getúlio Vargas' government in 1936.
Anita Leocadia Prestes, Prestes and Olga Benario's daughter
She was deported in 1936 and I was born right after...
in November of 36 in this women's prison in Berlin.
And there was a huge difficulty on the Nazi Gestapo's part...
to recognize my grandmother as a relative...
they alleged there was no marriage certificate.
Gestapo even told my mother...
that when I turned one year old and was weaned…
I would be sent to an orphanage.
In the Nazi Germany the prisoners' children were sent to an orphanage...
and there they would lose their names and become numbers.
So you can imagine my mother's concern...
the whole family's concern, right?
And Dr. Sobral's role was very important...
because he got this document.
It was a great victory, but half-made...
because the goal was to free my mother also and that wasn't achieved.
She was murdered in a gas chamber, as it is well known…
in a concentration camp in Germany.
With the amnesty of 1945 in Brazil...
my grandmother had already passed, and I came to Brazil for the first time…
with my Aunt Ligia.
There was a huge crowd waiting at Santos Dumont airport...
about 200 thousand people.
The ropes used by the communist party to isolate the arrival area were torn down...
It was crazy, I even got scared because I wasn't used to it.
Everyone wanted to touch me, kiss me...
hug me. The commotion was huge.
It was a very emotional moment, really.
In the picture you can see how moved my father was.
And one of the first visits my father insisted on paying...
was to Dr. Sobral Pinto's house, to meet him.
He welcomed us warmly with his wife, Mrs. Maria José.
Everytime Dr. Sobral Pinto met me...
he would say he was my second father, because he had contributed...
decisively to save me from the Nazis' claws…
that's the right expression.
Dr. Sobral, what would you like to get as a present for your 90th birthday?
I'd like to have my fellow citizens' friendship...
But you already have that.
I don't know, I don't know.
Because the only thing I really wish...
is that everyone sees me as a tolerant person...
an energetic, uncompromising, but comprehensive person.
And someone who adopted a Christian motto for life.
"Hate the sin. love the sinner".
In my life, I have aimed to practice this ideal.
And the evident proof that I am sincere is that...
I exposed myself for eight years before the Getulio Vargas's dictatorship...
to restore the dignity of two men who were being treated like animals.
And they were Luis Carlos Prestes and Harry Berger.
I exposed myself to arrest, incomprehension, persecution...
to give them their personal dignity back, from which the government was depriving them.
And I did it. In this sense, I felt fulfilled.
I managed to get them both treated as humans...
which they weren't before my intervention.
Morning Post
The Kight of Hope finally arrested!
Right after I met Sobral...
I was quite impressed with him.
Modesto da Silveira, lawyer
You know what I did? I went to read the files of the case that gave him international notoriety.
It was Prestes and Harry Berger's case.
The lawyer Magarino Torres...
Helio Fernandez, journalist
important figure who afterwards became a judge...
called Sobral Pinto at the local bar association...
and said: "The association appointed you to defend Luis Carlos Prestes".
Sobral didn't argue.
It was an obligation, an order and that was it.
But Luis Carlos Prestes wouldn't accept being defended by Sobral Pinto.
After my father was arrested in March of 1936...
he never wanted to have a lawyer…
even though he had this right...
because he had this idea of defending himself.
But due to Dr. Sobral Pinto persistence…
 he had been appointed lawyer ex officio...
my father started to have contact with Dr. Sobral Pinto...
and ended up accepting him as his defender.
Dr. Sobral had many clashes with the authorities...
to achieve his goals...
There would be long periods in which he would have no permission to visit...
the prisoner, which was absurd because he was the lawyer and should have access to the prisoner…
but they wouldn't allow it.
Well, Dr. Sobral was a fighter, no doubt.
Canepa wanted to stop my meetings with Prestes.
He was designated to a post in the correctional facility with that goal...
to keep me from visiting Prestes.
I would go see Prestes on Thursdays.
So the following Thursday I took a book with me.
Canepa wouldn't receive me so I used his waiting room as a reading room.
and I stayed there until 5 pm.
The thing is, he had to get something fixed in his office…
so he transferred the office to the waiting room.
On the following Thursday I went there and walked in...
When I walked in, he was there.
"Who gave you authorization to come in?"
"No, this is the waiting room...
I walked in because I thought this was the waiting room."
He was a tall, strong man, a cavalry lieutenant, an athletic type.
He clenched his fist to punch me.
I ducked and he spinned.
As he spinned I jumped on his back, grabbed his neck.
So he arrested me.
They accused me of flagrant contempt, disobedience and bodily injury.
Prestes was arrested together with a friend...
a German man called Harry Berger.
Harry Berger was in an even worse situation, he wasn't Brazilian nor a captain.
They put him in under a staircase on which hundreds of soldiers would step going up and down...
not soldiers, they were officers from Getulio Vargas' special police.
All he could hear of the world outside was the noise of the boots going up and down.
It was a permanent torture.
And when Sobral found out about these things, he asked...
Their situation, specially Harry Berger's was such that...
he asked them to respect at least the Animal Protection Law.
He asked the judge to apply the Animal Protection Law.
Because they received worse treatment than any mistreated animal.
You know when he had the idea to come up with that petition, don't you?
The thing is, Harry Beger was being severely beaten up...
and he was under that staircase...
Sobral had petitioned the judge several times...
denouncing the terrible conditions under which Berger was.
And the judge wouldn't do anything.
Then he opened the newspaper and saw an article about a...
guy who had been sentenced for mistreating a horse.
With this in mind he wrote one of the most beautiful petitions...
possibly the most beautiful petition in the history of law.
Sobral requested that Harry Berger be treated according to the Animal Protection Law.
Sobral sent it to Prestes in prison, he who refused to accept a lawyer.
When Prestes saw the petition - he conceded to receive it - he asked:
"Did you write this petition?"
"Yes."
"Is this your signature?"
"Yes."
"Then I accept you as my lawyer."
From thereon began this historical relationship between Prestes, a fierce marxist...
fighting for the marxist way of human coexistence...
and Sobral, fighting for a Christian, catholic way of human relations. 
They became great friends, despite there different views...
on how the human search for happiness should be undertaken...
and each achieved in its own way.




One of Dr. Sobral's main characteristics, his colleagues know that...
Zuenir Ventura, journalist
was his ethical integrity, his respect for justice and for the rights.
He would only take cases when he was absolutely certain there was justice to be done for his client.
He wasn't moved by money, that is, he'd refuse millionaire cases.
He did that sometimes.
Is it true that you do not charge many times?
Yes, in many cases, many.
Why?
There were times when in more than half of my cases I was working for free.
Since I don't know how to charge, I never knew…
to put this team of lawyers together...
though many of them are gone now, I established the following with them:
You help me with my cases when I ask...
and I help you with yours. Any can take any case you want.
The clients are yours, not mine.
I commit myself to give you any assistance you need from me.
Because he didn't receive any fees… He and his wife, Dona Maria, lived...
Renata de Almeida Magalhães, granddaughter
of Dario de A. Magalhães, lawyer
at the top end of Pereira da Silva Street, a steep hill in the Laranjeiras neighborhood.
And then my grandpa said:"'Ok, if he doesn't want any money...
I'll at least get the client to pay for a car and driver...
to serve the house."
Seven kids, a bunch of people, Dona Maria alone...
raising those kids with that self-sacrificing husband…
So the car got there without Sobral knowing it.
A car with a driver, and it was a lifelong thing, forever, the car would be replaced for a new one every year…
But Sobral sent the car back.
So Dona Maria scheduled a meeting with my grandpa.
She came here in this room, with this table and chair.
And she said, "Dr. Dario, please talk to Heráclito...
because if he returns this car, I'll go with it...
That will be too much for me."
And in the few times he charged people, he'd bring the money home…
Sobral Pinto's house
After he died we were dismantling his library...
you wouldn't believe the amount of money we found inside the books.
He was very open-handed with money.
Now, because of that, it was really funny...
for example, sometimes he got home for dinner laughing...
"What is it?", we'd ask.
"I went shopping for a shoe. I got in the store, tried the shoe…"
"When it was time to pay, they asked:"
"Aren't you Dr. Sobral Pinto?"
"You're not going to pay for this shoe!"
So, this way he would get shoes for free…
he wouldn't pay for our school for one year…
because he didn't have the money.
But imagine if Laura Jacobina, the headmistress of the school...
where we all studied, would even think of charging my dad…
She wouldn't!
But then the day he got paid for a case...
everyone received money.
He payed his coworkers, quit all his debts...
to then make new ones.
My mom was the opposite, she was a thrifty person...
she kept the house going because she had her father's pension...
and her brother's.
So my mom would pay for the groceries many times…
because he didn't even know where his money was, you know?
Sometimes he'd say, "Oh my God, how am I going to pay for this bill today?"...
And my mom would tell him, "Heráclito, charge your clients!".
Didier Mesquita, Sobral's office employee
He passed by here everyday, and everyone said hello, people from the clothing store...
from the stationary, they'd go to the door to say hello.
That would happen everyday.
Because he was so nice, he'd stop and say hello to everyone.
Some lawyers would pass by and come talk to him…
They'd call him Your Honour and he wouldn't accept it…
"I'm not Your Honour, I'm just like you!"
"Did you become an actor?"
This man's also from that time, but from the other side.
Who are you talking about?
Sobral Pinto's time.
Oh, Sobral Pinto? I remember him!
He worked on the little stand on the other side of the street.
He was a great jurist, wasn't he?
Is it his death centennial?
How long has it been since his death?
It's been 15 years.
15 years already? The great jurist Sobral Pinto.
He was a street vendor on that other side over there.
I was.
Then he came over to this side.
He was the guy who defended Luis Carlos Prestes, right?
That's right!
In Getúlio's time, when Getúlio Vargas used to chase communists.
Well done! You're very well informed!
He was one of the greatest jurist in this country.
We haven't had one like him to this day.
I used to see him walking by when I was a kid.
Since I was a kid I used to see that little man go by.
But I knew he was a great Brazilian.
Because you can only have democracy if you have rights...
and people who defend our rights.
And Sobral Pinto was one of these people.
It's a shame he didn't root for Botafogo! 
"He rooted for América, right?"
He was crazy about soccer, he was a fanatic supporter of América.
So everytime América lost it was because the referee had cheated...
or lack of luck...
He never admitted América had played poorly.
So he'd sit... The radio victrola used to stay here... I'm saying victrola...
because that's how we used to call it. It used to be right here.
So he'd sit by the victrola, put his ear against it and listen to the game.
When his team did anything wrong he'd say:
"Nonsense! It's not possible! I'm not going to listen anymore"
And he'd leave to his office…
And n one could say a word. After a while he'd come back.
Then mom would say:
"Have you calmed down?"
That's when he really lost control, over soccer.
In this matter he was passionate, he wasn't fair.
I even think this reinforces his dimension of a virtuous and fair man.
Because he was made of flesh and blood, not an android of justice.
It's very interesting how he abandons all sense of justice...
and gets completely passionate.
I mean, América would lose because the referee had cheated.
It was the jurist saying, unfairly, that the referee had cheated...
Criticizing the referee unfairly, based on nothing...
not based on virtue or right, or any important value…
based on his passion for América.
Really funny, a man who spent his life convincing...
the judges because he carried truth within, when it came to soccer...
he'd simply, let's say, slide-tackle the referee...
and wouldn't even think about the sense of justice or truth.
I've always liked cinema, ever since I was a kid.
One day Lucy called me and said:
Renata, we need a place...
with a 1940s' look... And we heard Dr. Sobral's office...
is wonderful, incredible, but we don't know how to get there...
nor how to contact him. Can you contact him for us?'
I said: 'Of course!'
So that was my first job in cinema.
I called him.
"Dr. Sobral, this is Renata, Dario's granddaughter, Rafael's daughter."
"Oh my darling!"
And I said: "I'm helping out with a movie here...
it's the movie 'Dona Flor' and they really want to see your office…
so I wanted to know if they can call, and who they should talk to…"
He said: "Dear, is it the film with Sônia Braga in it?"
And I said, "Yes, Dr. Sobral."
"And will she be in the scene? Because if she is, of course they can!"
He was something... He was almost a saint, but at the same time he wasn't!
And he had this incredible sense of humour, because all this wisdom...
also comes with a lot of sense of humour, no doubt.
And I think he had that all balanced.
He was one of the most important people in the Republic's history...
no doubt, because he was part of it all and he created...
respect for his letters...
Everyone feared Sobral's letters.
And he wrote several a day, a week, and he sent them to everyone.
He even sent me one after defending me.
"In the countless letters I write, I say:
I don't care if it's a minister, police chief...
or commander. No, I want people to be honorable...
I want them to fulfill their duty, obey the law...
I want them to be fair, dignified. That's what I want.
I want the country's common good to really...
be promoted and protected. Nothing else interests me!"
I was the only prisoner before the military coup in 1964.
I published a secret letter of the War Minister...
Jair Dantas Ribeiro, that had a stamp on the envelope...
that read 'confidential'.
And Dr. Sobral delivered a brilliant speech...
based on freedom of press...
not Helio Fernandes's freedom.
But a week later I received a letter from Dr. Sobral Pinto...
saying: "Helio, I defended you with all my conviction.
There's no chance I'm wrong.
But I want to remind you we disagree in many areas.
I disagree with you in many of your positions."
Sobral's difference was that he was extremely brave.
Rosa Cardoso, lawyer
Friends of other political viewpoints that weren't...
that of the military government turned away from him.
He was aware of the risks and of his solitude...
But he never kept himself from saying what he thought he should say.
He wrote many letters, as we all know...
denouncing the authorities.
He was not a tamed animal, ever.
The letter he wrote to Minister Armando Falcão...
Marcelo Santa Cruz, brother of Fernando Santa Cruz's, who disappeared in 1974.

is a historical letter because...
he's very eloquent in his claims...
and he also openly informs the measures...
he had taken regarding Fernando's kidnapping...
and disappearance.
"Honorable Minister of Justice, Dr. Armando Falcão, 
Your Honor is the Minister of Justice.
Pay close attention, Your Honor, to this position:
MINISTER OF JUSTICE."
"Minister, put the authority of your high office...
at the service of the effective and intact maintainance...
of the legislation of the so called Brazilian Revolution."
"April 3rd 1974, Heráclito Sobral Pinto."
Maria José, Sobral's wife
Dr. Sobral, your wife, Maria José...
turns 87 tomorrow together with you.
You've been married for 61 years.
How do you see love?
I see love as a feeling that...
brings hearts together and makes these hearts...
understand and tolerate one another.
It's indispensable that both know that...
they should help each other mutually…
and stand each other, specially in the bitter moments.
We lived here an extremely delicate...
moment in my dad's life.
He had a difference with Representative Lutero Vargas.
And Lutero Vargas decided to attack him publicly…
invading his personal life.
And on this day, in July 1954, when I woke up in the morning…
I noticed a strange atmosphere at home.
Then my brother José Luiz said to me:
Did you see what's on the newspaper today?' 
I said: 'No'.
It's on the newspaper that dad had an affair with a woman.'
And I remember having this feeling…
that the world was falling apart.
My father! No, it wasn't possible!
I was already married and I fell in love and had an affair, which…
made me deviate from my duty as a Catholic husband and that's the reason why…
I resigned from my position as Federal Criminal Prosecutor.
I felt I didn't have the right to accuse anyone anymore…
after I had had that attitude.
In 1928, when he was the Federal Criminal Prosecutor…
which was the second most important office in the government…
a woman he deeply respected fell in love with him..
and he got involved with that woman.
Only then I found out why he wouldn't go to…
soccer stadiums as told you before…
why he wouldn't go to the movies.
He said that night he wouldn't go as a self-punishment.
He thought since he had betrayed the marital bed…
he had no right to have fun.
There's a small excerpt from this letter here in which he says:
"Until yesterday I had managed to keep my children completely…
ignorant about my scandalous sin of so many years ago.
Before this new scandal though, result of the disclosure of…
Dr. Lutero Vargas's letter, I realized it would no longer be possible…
to keep them in the dark about such a serious matter.
I then decided to gather the entire family last night…
and use discrete words to tell them everything,
I showed them the greatness of the mother they had…
and how superior she was in her silence.
Because to this day, she's never said a word…
about my betrayal.
And when I finished, my children, with their eyes filled with tears…
jumped all at once on my neck…
covering me with kisses and saying things like:
Dad we keep getting prouder and prouder of you.
Only a very strong man could proceed as this letter says.
Reading this letter to his children was not humilliating…
it was an act of exaltation'."
I don't know, I was only 17…
and I'm not quite sure what I was thinking…
All I know is that in that moment…
my father had become more human. 
Because I saw my father in a very idealized manner…
he's perfection was such that sometimes…
it made me feel I was very bad…
because I didn't have his intelligence…
I didn't have his knowledge...
So in that moment it was as if my father, in his…
amazing dignity, had gotten closer to us.
This affair that he had…
with another woman while married to my grandma…
Carlos Alberto Sobral Pinto, Sobral Pinto's grandson
… all his life he carried it
without having any feedback from her...
… a sign of comprehension, something like that.
And coincidentally when my grandma was already in hospital…
a bit before she passed…
I arrived at the hospital and came upon him at the moment he was leaving her room…

In that moment he looked at me and said:
"Son, your grandma has forgiven me!"
In spite of all her dedication to him…
her whole life, I think he needed to hear those words of forgiveness.
Juscelino wanted to appoint him as a member of the Supreme Federal Court…
and he declined, because he'd supported Juscelino…
and thought that could come across as some kind of privilege.
He was independent.
I think maybe this is the greatest value that…
one can attribute to Sobral Pinto, independence.
An independent man, a very rare thing to see.
Think about it: the military decided to end Juscelino's candidacy.
So they sent an ultimatum to President Café Filho saying that…
he should end Juscelino's candidacy.
I used to vote for UDN.
All of my friends were with UDN:
Adauto, Carlos Lacerda, Dario de Almeida Magalhães.
Carlos Lacerda gave me the news.
So in that moment I said, "I'll jump to the other side."
Not to defend Juscelino's candidacy.
Not to defend PSD.
But to defend PSD's right…
to choose whichever candidate they want…
without the petulant intervention of the military.
In that moment I will defend Juscelino's…
right to be a candidate for president.
But I won't vote for him, I'm not his supporter.
And so I did.
So what happened was…
all of my friends withdrew and I was left by myself.
He also payed the price for being inflexible…
for being inexorably loyal to his convictions.
You displease many people being like that.
Someone who doesn't give in.
Someone who doesn't gild the pill.
He evidently becomes unpleasant and…
even dangerous to many people.
What was wrong with accepting Juscelino's invitation…
to be a member of the Supreme Federal Court?
I had categorically stated in a letter…
that I wouldn't accept anything from Juscelino.
But why not?
Because they said I was tired of fighting…
and so in Juscelino's government I'd have…
a position of great importance.
So I thought it was my duty to say:
No sir, I intervened to defend the Constitution…
and the election of an elected man, not to have personal advantage.'
With this letter in their hands, these journalists of yours…
could use it to rub it in my face and say:
What's your word worth?'
President of the Republic
To the National Congress.
Today, and by this instrument, leaving to…
the Minister of Justice the reasons for my act…
Jânio resigns.
São Paulo marches against communism.
On April 1st 64, in the morning…
the army came in war tanks, one after the other…
And as they arrived in the crowded square, people clapped and cheered.
At that moment, the tanks turned their guns towards the people…
And from behind the tanks the soldiers started coming out…
using their fixed bayonets to kick the people out of the square.
As they began to do that…
the people understood the shift and started to boo.
As they booed, the soldiers went forwards with the rifles…
and everyone understood that a coup was in progress.
You supported the 1964 military coup.
After that, you started to criticize it.
Did you regret supporting that movement?
I supported it because I was sure that…
the communists were taking over the government.
And if that happened, they would establish here…
a communist or unionist communist government.
But when they took over the government…
they were supposed to restore the Constitution that was being..
wounded and destroyed by João Goulart's government.
That's why I supported it.
But once the military got João Goulart out of the way…
they established the Military Dictatorship.
At that moment I rose against it:
No, that's not what I want!'
So then I started to criticize them.
That's the reason!
I was favorable because they were supposed to…
restore the Constitution.
Since the military, instead of restoring the Constitution…
kept on the path of disrespect...
I started to criticize them and have been criticizing them until today.
I remember a very troubled day…
and an even more troubled night.
We spent a sleepless night…
waiting for the events and…
Madalena Arraes, Governor Miguel Arraes's widow
thinking of what we could do the next day.
And I had to take care of the children, and they were many…
and they had to go to school and lead a normal life.
So I prepared myself to face this normal day.
I went back to the palace.
Everything was surrounded, the army had taken over.
They wouldn't let me go in and I said:
But I'm going in, I live here! I'm going in.
I have to get my life going.
My husband is in there."
So I went in.
And I saw how the situation was.
And at a certain moment he was arrested.
He was taken from the palace and I didn't know where to.
The next morning I learned through the Esso News …
he had been taken to Fernando de Noronha Island…
He was in prison there.
I went to the office.
When I got to the office at Alvaro Alvim Street I met…
people whose parents, husbands and children had already disappeared.
I got everybody's information and went straight to the Department of Social and Political Order (DOPS)…
because those were obviously political arrests.
Shortly after Sobral arrives.
Sobral Pinto arrived in all his verve…
and in all his glory he couldn't get in the DOPS.
I crossed the street as he was leaving...
He had given up talking to the policemen at the gate.
I introduced myself, because I knew him but he didn't know me.
And from thereon I was the lawyer of thousands of victims of political persecution...
And he also defended many people.
We had no perspective, we didn't know…
when he would come back, when he would be free.
The situation didn't get solved…
and more than a year passed like that.
In this context, Dr. Sobral sent…
an habeas corpus application and…
and once it got approved…
he could come back from Fernando de Noronha and…
resume his life here.
But the odds were that Miguel would be arrested again.
Because of this perspective of instability…
we started considering leaving the country.
So he came up with that solution: to go to Algeria.
And so we went.
And we stayed there for many years.
It took some time to gather the entire family.
Three or four years if my memory serves me right.
Sobral discreetly supported the 1964 Coup…
because of the communist problem… discreetly.
But a week after the coup he sent a very hard letter…
to President Castelo Branco saying he couldn't
be president because when he took over, he was…
the army's Chief of Staff…
and the army's Chief Staff, without any votes…
couldn't take over the presidency of the Republic.
This was Sobral Pinto.
Sobral Pinto was a conservative lawyer.
Elinor Brito, ex-student leader
But from the juristic point of view, from an ethical and political point of view…
he was a visionary, a revolutionist…
as all of his actions demonstrate.
Whether he was a conservative, that's secondary.
The main point is that he left this as a lesson.
Defending democracy, individual rights…
collective rights, the right to political organization and freedom of expression…
doesn't depend on ideology.
Sobral kept an extraordinary coherence…
José Murilo de Carvalho, historian
which is very difficult for people to keep, 
because things change.
And he himself ended up transformed in a…
kind of national institution.
Touching Sobral Pinto was perhaps more complicated…
then shutting Congress.
A few hours ago professor Sobral Pinto was telling me…
a very interesting story to which you now can…
add more details for us.
He told me that in 1964 you talked to him…
about the idea of going into exile.
So he told you: 'Listen, José, don't do that…
because that shouldn't last more than two years.'
And he was lamenting that he forgot to put…
a zero after the two.
How did that happen?
Professor Sobral Pinto protested judicially…
José Aparecido de Oliveira - federal representative in 1964
against my cassation.
It was the only judicial protest in 1964.
At the time we printed 10 thousand copies…
and it must have been the first public manifestation…
of democratic resistance to the military coup.
And you are certainly proud of that…
Well, there's no reason to be proud.
One is not proud of simply fulfilling a duty.
I performed my duty as a citizen and as a lawyer.
As a citizen because it was every citizen's duty…
to protest against the establishment of a dictatorship.
As a lawyer because he was a victim of persecution in need...
of support and it was my duty to provide that support.
There was that murder of the student Edson Luis.
The vigil for the body was held in the City Council building.
And then they held a mass at Candelária Church for the soul of Edson Luis.
And there, the army and the police tried to keep the people from getting to the church.
As they started to kidnap people…
they kidnapped four youngsters:
Two guys and two ladies.
Two brothers, one named Rogério and the other…
named Ronaldo Duarte.
I had already been indicted in many political cases…
Rogério Duarte, graphic artist, ex-political prisoner
since 1962.
Particularly because I was from the National Student Union.
But on this day they arrested me I was kind of…
thinking I was just a boy from Ipanema…
a playboy who had been undeservedly arrested .
I was always there playing matkot with my friends,
Leila Diniz…the cool left-wing guys, let's say.
So the idea of being tortured was…
something that could happen to anyone.
But to me?
These two were kidnapped and taken to…
a military department in the suburbs, in the Military Village.
The lawyers who were sought to defend them were…
Sobral Pinto and I.
Sobral Pinto was a very important lawyer…
Very! He was the most important lawyer in Brazil at the time.
If it weren't for his intervention, our matter…
wouldn't have had the historical importance it had.
It was the first time someone denounced torture…
inside military quarters.
We left under threat: 'If you open your mouth, you're dead!'
So I ran to Bahia's countryside.
I became a bandit.
Then I went crazy, totally insane.
When I came back to Rio, I was put in a mental institution.
To have Sobral Pinto as my defender…
For my self-esteem, to know that he believed…
in me and in my story, after going through…
a systematic process of misinformation because of…
the torture, in which I lost all self-reference…
in which I had been completely shredded…
When a person like him rescues me…
as a human being with civil rights…
it felt almost like a resurrection, you know?
I think the proclamation of the Republic…
by the military is Brazil's disaster.
After the military did that…
they thought they owned the Republic.
And they never accepted not to be the owners of the Republic.
And as long as the presidency and the eminent…
positions in the country do not go back to civilians and remain…
in the hands of the military, we will stay in this terrible
situation we are now, of bankruptcy and corruption.
Discussing this story with the civil society…
Rosa Cardoso, lawyer
Further discussing this forgotten story...
will make a very clear distinction between…
a dictatorial regime…
between not only ethical damages, violation of human rights,
but also political damages.
It will make us analyze this authoritarian legacy and discuss what…
remains of this legacy in our lives, in our society…
That time, specially that 21-year period…
left gaps not only in Congress…
in the House of Representatives, in the Senate… cassations, castrations…
but also in the judiciary system, which was also revoked and castrated.
So it was left an ethical gap, a legal gap…
a gap also caused by the empty space...
left by those who would have done politics but couldn't…
the empty space left by the knowledge that students…
of all ages were not allowed to have.
The year of 1968 can be divided in two parts.
Until December 13th of that year, leap year, by the way…
you could still manifest. There was a dictator - we were actually on the…
fourth or fifth dictator, but there was still the possibility of manifestation…
there were rallies, assemblies…
It was a moment of great cultural and political effervescence.
Then comes that infamous Institutional Act nº 5…
cancelling all liberties.
That is, it suspended habeas corpus,
the possibility of gathering and of expression.
A mantle of darkness came down on the country.
When the IA5 denied habeas corpus to political prisoners…
the lawyers, including Sobral, were very creative…
When people were kidnapped, they required…
habeas corpus, which was nicknamed 'localization habeas corpus'…
alleging that, since there was no detention order…
nor accusation, there was no political crime, which would…
only become official at  the moment the crime were in fact imputed to the accused.
So, if the IA5 only forbade habeas corpus for political crimes,
until they could provide information as to the person's whereabouts…
and what the charge was, they could still have the right to habeas corpus.
And the judges would admit the habeas corpus, send…
letters to various governmental organs asking for information.
And when an organ answered saying the missing person was being kept there…
this person was saved from a clandestine death.
The day after the declaration of the Institutional Act nº 5…
José Carlos Baleeiro, lawyer
I was in Goiânia, at Mauro Borges's house…
ex-governor of the state of Goiás.
His son showed up at night saying:
Dad, they arrested Sobral.'
I got on a plane to Goiânia where I was going to be the patron…
of a class of 70 students who were graduating that day.
The dean went to the hotel where I was…
and said the Secretary of Public Security of Goiás…
had gone to see him in the morning.
"I wanted you to ask Sobral Pinto if he is going to make any comments…
on the Act that was decreed yesterday."
Before I answer I want to know from you…
if you declare on your honor that what I will tell you will stay…
between you and me.
Not even with your wife you can share this information.
If you give me your word, I'll give you the answer.
Otherwise, I won't say a thing.'
So he said: 'No, you have my word.'
So I said, "I obviously won't make any comments.
Because if I do, they'll turn off the lights and end the party.
I have common sense, so you can rest at ease.
But you tell him that under no circumstances…
I'll let anyone censor my speech as a patron.
Neither he nor anyone else."
At 7:30 pm I was in shirt sleeves -
it's very hot in Goiânia, the heat is terrible -
wearing slippers and no socks, when they knocked on my door.
Come in!
So he told me:
"I'm chief of the Federal Police here in Goiânia."
Major Clóvis, if I'm not mistaken.
"I have a message from the President of the Republic for you.
The message is that you must come with me."
"My friend, the president is a general, you're a major.
So he can give you orders, you're a militar.
I'm a civilian... The president can't give me orders.'
Let alone a stupid order like that, I'm not coming.'
So leave! Don't be pert, leave!"
At that moment he gave his men order to arrest me.
Of the six men, four jumped over me.
"Let's go!"
"I'm not going! You can drag me, I'm not going!"
"We don't want to hurt you!"
"You can hurt me, I don't care, but I'm not going!"
So they dragged me.
And he said, "Get ready because you're going to Brasília."
From Goiânia to Brasília it's about 3 and a half hours…
by car in a decent road.
In the middle of the trip a car appeared behind us…
with high beams, following us.
So I decided to go back to Brasília, I was in Goiânia.
I was overtaken by a black car…
Maybe an Aero Willys or an Opala, with no license plate.
There were five people in the car.
The one in the middle on the back seat, by the white hair…
I could tell it was Sobral.
And with that reckless courage of the young…
I decided to follow the car…
to see where they were going to put Sobral Pinto.
After all, at the time it wasn't rare for people…
to disappear through acts of the military government agents.
And I started to follow the car…
with my high beams so they wouldn't know...
who I was or how many we were.
It was just me.
The driver found an excuse to stop.
They were worried about those high beams.
When we pulled over, the other car also stopped and turned off the lights.
We were there for some time. They saw the other car didn't move…
so they decided to resume the trip.
And the car followed us all the way to Brasília.
That night I started to wake up…
the lawyers that I knew,
lawyers who were friends, people who had Sobral as an idol…
like myself.
We formed a chain…
and we intervened decisively for his release.
And also the colonel, commander of that batallion...
couldn't stand Sobral anymore.
He'd make speeches to the other prisoners.
And the military would say:
You can't speak against the government!'
But he did it, he wasn't afraid.
With his courage he brought about a true…
revolution in that batallion.
Interview with Sobral Pinto
60 years of resistance!
This story is told by Sobral in this interview…
he gave to the "Pasquim" in 1977.
I went there on a Saturday night.
On Monday the colonel sent us the message…
that he would talk about the rights…
of the military to govern the country.
And there he went.
So he started by saying that they should do it…
because they were patriots and they really knew…
Brazil's problems,
that they studied about them in War College…
and that they were the truly honest ones, and so on.
So he went on that speech, and that talk started irritating me.
So I said: 'You don't know anything!
This War College works with booklets.
I know these booklets.
If someone is going to study Brazil's problems there…
he'll be lost!'
And when he said:
"We will install a Brazilian-style democracy here."
"There I interrupted him." (Sobral speaking.)
"Give me a break. There's no such thing as Brazilian-style democracy.
There is turkey Brazilian-style. Democracy is universal."
This is the title of the story in Pasquim.
Sobral Pinto: 'There's no democracy Brazilian-style.
There's only turkey Brazilian-style.'
What was your wife's reaction…
when you were in prison?
Dona Maria's reaction?
Oh, she said that I should be really pleased…
because that's what I wanted!
Around 1987, the journalist Zuenir Ventura was…
preparing a book about the year of 1968.
So a casual opportunity came along…
to do my first important interview.
It was done with Sobral Pinto about his arrest…
in 1968 following the declaration of the IA5.
We were here where we are now, in this house…
in the living room, on the couch he liked to sit on…
in his pajamas and slippers.
And he started to talk about the moment he was arrested.
The major told him he was arrested.
And he answered:
"The hell I am!"
The thing is, this vehemence happened in 1968…
and it also happened 20 years later…
when he was talking to me!
He had been arrested at 75 years of age and had been brave…
and at 95 he was still brave, indignant.
And he said it with the same indignation..
and such vehemence that he ended up kicking…
the air and his slipper flew over my head.
His reaction was so strong it made me think,
"I am before a brave man."
"If in that year they were to give a prize for...
phisical and civic bravery, the thousands of students who...
faced the police on the streets would have had some serious competition...
in the person of this young, insubordinate man called...
Heráclito Fontoura Sobral Pinto."
What makes someone have such an intense reaction...
20 years after the fact he's narrating?
So intense, so indignant, so extraordinarily indignant?
It's because something really extraordinary moves this person.
Something really special moves this man.
Then I understood it is his faith.
Sobral Pinto's faith is something…
much bigger than his religious faith.
Sobral Pinto's religious faith is only a part…
of the man's faith.
Sobral Pinto was a man of faith…
in life, in the truth of things.
A man of faith in virtue, in what's right.
What role does faith play in your life?
Faith is everything!
Everything in my life comes from my faith.
Everything my faith tells me to do…
I try to do.
I don't do everything. I'd be a saint.
If I could accomplish everything…
my faith tells me to do, I'd be a saint.
And I'm far from being a saint, very far.
My consciense accuses me terribly.
But it keeps me from doing many things.
Temptations are permanent, constant.
A man like myself has temptations of all kinds,
from women to unethical negotiators.
Would you say it is from faith that you draw
this amazing strenght to fight for justice?
Exclusively from faith!
The energy I have, the courage I have...
the disposition I have.
Every manifestation that comes from my being...
that comes from my head, from my words…
All this is a direct consequence of my faith.
Sobral Pinto was a man of public spirit.
To have public spirit is to transform civilizing values...
in personal values, understand?
Why did Sobral Pinto... 
give up wealth, for instance?
He could have gotten rich with his work.
Why didn't Sobral Pinto ever compromise?
I don't know, but I never heard in any family talk...
about his regretting at the end of his life not having further means,
not living more comfortably.
No sign of hangover or regret, why?
Because he was a millionaire in his soul, understand?
Everytime he obeyed his conviction...
he "earned a million".
At a certain point in his life, Sobral Pinto started...
being compared to Don Quixote.
He even got a trophy with the image of the character.
Well, he was a brave, romantic man, that's for sure,
but that analogy bothers me a little.
People thought it was so amazing to see a man of...
courage and principles, that it seemed like a fable.
But Sobral was a real man.
And everything that was once real is still possible.
Would you like to send a message...
to young people, to Brazilian people in general?
Sure!
I think I might be one of the few people...
to have a true message to the young...
which is the following:
I knew a juridically organized world.
After World War I, everything changed.
Violence entered the world.
A world where the law no longer worked...
where there was no respect for law whatsoever.
Violence ruled.
So that's how young people think today.
They think strength and violence rule.
No!
That is a transition,
a grim, dangerous transition.
They should fight to have back that conception...
prior to the World War I, in which law...
was what really governed men's activities...
in private life, public life, companies, everywhere.
Law was a reality.
No one dared disrespecting it.
So this is my message!
I knew this world.
If it existed before, it can exist again.
So that's why I say to young people:
Work, not through violence, but through...
words, reasoning, argumenting, ir order to...
convince eveyone that they should really organize...
their country in a perfect juridical order...
in which the three powers work freely, with mutual respect.
This is my message to young people.
Sobral Pinto must have left some heirs, because nothing dies.
So I take the opportunity to say,
 if there's any spiritual descendent of Sobral Pinto..
please appear!
Because we are in real need of people like him.
That's what I could say.
Directed by Paula Fiuza
Produced by Augusto Casé.
Here at the release of João Nogueira's album...
a unique person, the jurist Sobral Pinto.
Dr. Sobral, how do you feel as ...
the theme of a song that'll be very popular...
and everyone will sing, 'Grandpa Sobral'?
I'm worried because the song is so beautiful...
so attractive that people will want to listen to it.
And when they listen, they'll find in it words that attribute me..
qualities and virtues that I don't have.
I was taking part in the rally for direct elections...
at Candelária Church and I was moved to hear Dr. Sobral Pinto...
utter the first article of the Constitution.
I confess as a 40 year old man...
I didn't know the first article of the Brazilian Constitution...
that I now think every Brazilian should know from 4 years of age.
And I was very moved to see him raising...
the crowd, saying things that the Brazilian people...
needed and need to know.
Tribute is also being paid to you in the theater...
with a play by Millôr Fernandes:
"Help Dr. Sobral to fight evil."
How do you feel?
Do you feel you're something like the muse of the Summer of 1985?

My child, I don't know what to say.
I don't know how to explain all these tributes.
Grandpa Sobral said
That the direct vote is the worker's wish
That this is a right every citizen demands
Choosing the nation's chief
And Grandpa Sobral said
That the brave soldier will see his true value
Fighting for the good of the people
As says the Constitution 
Grandpa Sobral
To those who don't know him is a great man
He became a famous jurist
Patron of every court
Grandpa Sobral
At 90 years of age
Claims for human rights
At the squares of every city
He stands and delivers
Today he's the reason that guides the people
Even though he's the eldest
Today he's the newest
Hero of national justice
Oh how I like Grandpa Sobral!'