On April 1, 2014, the bust of Rubens Paiva was inaugurated in the Hall of the Brazilian National Congress, the same parliament that was shut down by the military coup five decades earlier.
During the dictatorship of 1964 to 1985, many federal members like Paiva were arrested, tortured, and even assassinated by the militaries. However, Paiva remains the only current or former member of that Congress with a “missing person” status.
The tribute to Paiva’s memory was attended by the President of Congress, federal representatives from a broad political spectrum, Paiva’s family, friends, and civil society organizations. The bust is a landmark for Brazil’s history and has a deep meaning to the Paiva family. In the absence of a proper grave, it became their spot to pay respects to Rubens Paiva’s life.
As the ceremony was taking place, a tall man made his way among the crowd, pushing Paiva’s family members and committing the most outrageous of gestures: spitting on Paiva’s bust. Surrounded by two strong bodyguards, Jair Bolsonaro, then federal backbencher who a few years later would become the country’s worst elected president, tried to further disturb the tribute before leaving for his office.
Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro
Brazil’s previous President Jair Bolsonaro. Photo: Sergio Lima/AFP
I’m Still Here
The painful saga of Rubens Paiva and his family became internationally known with the recent launch of the Brazilian movie I’m Still Here, which won 40 international awards, including the Golden Globe for Fernanda Torres as Best Actress and the 2025 Oscar for Best International Feature Film.
The picture’s main character is Eunice Paiva, Rubens’ wife. It particularly highlights how this mother of five children, aged 5 to 17, found the necessary strength to raise her family and fight for democracy after the tragic torture, murder, and disappearance of her husband in 1971, during the “years of lead,” the cruelest period of the Brazilian dictatorship.
The movie is based on the book of the same name, written by Marcelo Rubens Paiva, Rubens and Eunice’s youngest child.
In 1982, Marcelo launched his first book, Happy Old Year: an Autobiography. This book recounts the unfortunate accident where Marcelo hit his head at the bottom of a waterfall, resulting in tetraplegia. While recounting this sad accident, the book maintains an incredibly ironic and fun tone, with several chronicles about Marcelo’s life as a lost young man, trying to become an engineer as his dad was, his love affairs before and after his accident — all set against a backdrop of political repression and his father’s tragical story.
I clearly remember a passage where Marcelo recounts the moment when his mom and Vera, his older sister, arrived at the hospital after being notified of his accident.
Mortified with this misfortune, a sobbing Eunice kept repeating that after losing her husband in that horrendous way, she would not endure another tragedy in the family.
However, Eunice not only survived but became a central character in the political battle against the dictatorship, leading several campaigns for the release of the secret archives of the murderous regime.
Having graduated as a lawyer in 1973 — after her husband’s “disappearance” — she was a pioneering voice in the struggle for the rights of Indigenous people on Brazilian soil.
Human Rights and the Paiva Family
I was fortunate to attend Professor Vera Paiva’s lectures during my undergraduate and doctoral studies at Universidade de São Paulo. Veroca, as she is known, is an internationally recognized social psychologist whose courses always placed a strong emphasis on human rights promotion.
Since 2014, Veroca has been an active voice with the Special Commission on Political Deaths and Disappearances (CEMDP), where her mother served during the 1990s. Established in 1995, this federal body has accumulated a large documentary collection about that period.
Their work has supported the establishment of several Truth Commissions across the country, which seek to discover the truth behind the actions of state agents that resulted in the torture, murder, and disappearance of an unknown number of Brazilian citizens during the military dictatorship.
Despite the strong evidence produced by these Commissions, Brazil is still lagging behind in its transitional justice process compared to other South American countries.
One of the main reasons for this lack of criminal action against the culprits of these crimes is the 1979 Amnesty Law. This law offered forgiveness to all “political crimes” committed during the dictatorship, applying to both civilians who struggled against the authoritarian regime and to the state agents who committed crimes against humanity during the dictatorship.
In the case of the murder and disappearance of Rubens Paiva, this broad application of the Amnesty Law had harmful effects.
In 2014, after extensive investigations by the Truth Commission, federal prosecutors brought the five accused military officers to the Federal Court for these horrendous crimes. However, the defence lawyers, employing the Amnesty Law, were granted an injunction to suspend the case. To date, three of the five accused have died without punishment.
The Power of the Big Screen
In November 2024, I’m Still Here was launched in Brazilian cinemas. In just four months of exhibition, it has brought five million people to the movie theatres. The sessions have become a collective catharsis, where people cry and embrace each other during the exhibition.
Brazilians have demonstrated an unprecedented drive to learn more about historical events that had never been properly explained to them. Young political activists have started to demonstrate in front of the residence of retired general Belham, one of the accused officers in the Rubens Paiva case.
The official death certificate of Rubens Paiva was only granted to Eunice in 1996 after a 25-year judicial battle. Nevertheless, given the impact of the movie, on January 23, his death certificate was rectified to include that Paiva’s cause of death was “violent and caused by the Brazilian state in the context of systematic persecution of people identified as antagonists of the dictatorial regime.”
In a further development, the Supreme Court will soon decide whether the Amnesty Law can be applied to the accused in Rubens Paiva’s case, which may affect all cases involving crimes against humanity during the dictatorship.
In the meantime, former president and disgraced spitter Bolsonaro was indicted by the Federal Prosecutor’s Office for crimes against the Democratic Rule of Law during his term. Bolsonaro can be incarcerated for up to 30 years if found guilty.
The vigour of the cultural and political life in the country shows that democratic Brazilians are still here.
Despite the historical scars and the hurdles exacerbated by a growing unequal neoliberal system, Brazilians are still keen to expand their democracy. Following the historical example of Eunice Paiva’s fight and resilience, democratic Brazilians want to build a radical democracy where political freedom is combined with greater social justice.
Rubens and Eunice are still with us.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of The Globe Post.