Rubens Paiva, a former Brazilian congressman murdered by the Brazilian military dictatorship (1964-1985), became known after the release of the film 'I’m Still Here' (2024), directed by Walter Salles and starring Selton Mello as Rubens and Fernanda Torres as his wife, Eunice Paiva.
For her performance, Fernanda Torres was awarded Best Actress at the Golden Globes, and the film received three Oscar nominations on Thursday (23): Best Actress for Fernanda Torres, Best Film, and Best International Film.
Prior to the story being shown on screens, Rubens Paiva's parliamentary career reveals his political actions in confronting reactionary forces that, supported by the US government, planned the 1964 military coup that deposed then President João Goulart.
Elected a federal deputy in 1962 by the Brazilian Labor Party (PTB, in Portuguese), the same party that then-President João Goulart – dubbed Jango – belonged to, Paiva played a central role in the fight against the coup that was already taking shape in 1963: he was vice-president of the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI, in Portuguese), set up to investigate allegations of US funding of conservative politicians to destabilize and overthrow the Jango government.
This funding was intermediated through two organizations: Instituto de Pesquisas e Estudos Sociais (Institute for Research and Social Studies, also known in Portuguese as IPES) and Instituto Brasileiro de Ação Democrática (Brazilian Institute for Democratic Action also known in Portuguese as Ibad).
“Hundreds of candidates had received substantial financial aid from Ibad in many states,” points out journalist Jason Tércio, author of the books Segredo de Estado: o desaparecimento de Rubens Paiva (State secret: the disappearance of Rubens Paiva, launched in Brazil in 2010) and Perfil parlamentar de Rubens Paiva (Rubens Paiva's parliamentary profile, Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies, 2014).
The money was allegedly used for electoral propaganda, such as advertising in the press, printing and distributing posters, banners, ballot papers, and leaflets, recording jingles and radio and television shows, and renting airplanes, vehicles, and stereos.
“Ibad was linked to the parliamentary caucus and channeled all this money in Brazil to conservative candidates. Rubens Paiva was the most active [politician against this initiative] as vice-president of the Commission of Inquiry. He was very committed to it, an enthusiastic man in his first term,” Tércio told Brasilde Fato.
After several investigations and interrogations, many of them conducted by Rubens Paiva, the CPI found pieces of evidence that Ibad “had put money and material aid into the campaigns of at least 600 candidates for state deputies and 250 candidates for federal deputies, as well as some candidates for governors and vice-governors,” Tércio reveals in his book.
The CPI heard 34 testimonies that led to a report pointing out people responsible for electoral corruption, but no one was punished. Following part of the commission's conclusions, President Jango ordered the suspension of Ibad and Adep's activities for three months. IPES, for its part, was not held responsible.
“With the suspension of the activities of the institutes under investigation, the CPI also suspended its activities temporarily. After three months, the work was resumed, but with other members and without Rubens Paiva,” Tércio told Brasil De Fato.
Despite impunity, it shouldn't be forgotten that the CPI of which Rubens Paiva was not only a member, but also helped to lead, “had national repercussions and that's why he was very much targeted,” explains Tércio.
“I think it's entirely spurious to create in this country, in the shadow of great economic power – especially of foreign industries – economic agencies of large foreign monopolies, all these acronyms that make up the thriving industrial park of the anti-communist industry which, as we see, is perhaps one of the most profitable, with huge resources,” declared Rubens Paiva during the CPI session on August 3, 1963.
The day before, federal deputy Amaral Neto, from the National Democratic Union (UDN, in Portuguese), the main opposition party to the Jango government, publicly acknowledged having benefited from Ibad and ignored the origin of the money he used in his campaign to pay for vehicles, banners and sponsorship of radio and TV programs.
During a CPI session on August 9, 1963, in response to an attack by Abel Rafael, a member of the Progressive Republican Party (PRP, in Portuguese) from the state of Minas Gerais, Rubens Paiva highlighted the importance of the commission's work.
“What's happening is that I'm part [...] of the commission that is investigating the activities of Ibad, this scourge, this den, this institution that is trying to corrupt the political life of the country by pouring rivers of money, both national and foreign, into undermining the electoral process and imposing ideological terrorism on Brazil.”
In Jason Tércio's analysis, Rubens Paiva had “a very courageous attitude”, as well as the “great merit of being a combative, coherent figure who sought the best for Brazil”. “He was a nationalist, and in truth, he was never a communist, not least because he was a businessman in the civil engineering sector,” he says.
With the coup underway, the deputy spoke live on Rádio Nacional in Rio de Janeiro, denouncing the fascist nature of the military movement and calling for resistance from unions and workers.
“I’d like to address particularly all workers, all students and the people of São Paulo state, deeply harmed by this fascist and coupist government that, right now, is betraying his own term and siding with reactionary forces,” said Paiva.
Listen to the full version of the speech below
With the coup concluded, Rubens Paiva's term was revoked on April 10, 1964, and he joined the list of politicians classified as dead or missing in January 1971. In 1996, Eunice Paiva got the country to issue her husband's death certificate.
Rubens Paiva and his wife, Eunice Paiva / Source: Rubens Paiva's familly.
Ibad and Ipes' activities
Set up on May 30 by Resolution No. 10/1963, the CPI was created with a six-month deadline to investigate the origin of the financial resources and the involvement of the two organizations in the 1962 electoral campaign which held elections for the Senate, Chamber of Deputies, Legislative Assemblies, state governments, mayors and councillors.
Based in Rio de Janeiro, Ibad, headed by economist Ivan Hasslocher, described itself as a civil society organization aiming to boost the “development of free enterprise”. The way it did this was initially by propagating liberal ideology in the media and through symposiums.
In 1962, Tércio points out that Hasslocher “saw a good opportunity to make a lot of money and took it a step further”, creating Ação Democrática Popular (Adep), a civil society with the function of operating the fundraising scheme for campaigns, carried out by the advertising agency, he explains in the book.
Ibad and Adep's illegal activities came to fruition when they established a national network of clandestine fundraising with money from businessmen. The funding was deposited in the bank accounts of the advertising agency S/A Incrementadora de Vendas Promotion, created by Hasslocher at the beginning of his career, managed by him and aimed at attending candidates' campaigns.
However, not just any candidate could be part of the scheme, but only those who were committed to Adep's principles: “To fight against communist infiltration in our homeland, which strives, with words, to seduce the people, preaching social reforms to the implementation of which the communists themselves are the greatest obstacle, since we know that they have never achieved power where social and economic justice existed.”
For its part, the Institute of Social Research and Studies (IPES) was founded on February 1, 1962, by businessmen from São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, who were coordinated by Army Colonel Golbery do Couto e Silva.
Similarly to Ibad, “IPES’ official goal was to defend the values of liberal capitalism and private initiative.” But it did this by fighting popular anti-liberal movements through “seminars, intensive courses and conferences, articles and paid articles in the press. It financed the production of propaganda films that praise liberal democracy and said Brazil was threatened by communism,” writes Tércio.
IPES ended in 1971 without being listed on the CPI. Ibad's founder, Ivan Hasslocher, moved to Geneva, Switzerland, in 1965, the year after the coup that overthrew Goulart. In 1976, he moved to London and then to the United States, where he died on March 5, 2000, at 79.
Edited by: Dayze Rocha
