Report contradicts version of accident and says that Juscelino Kubitschek was murdered

Former president Juscelino Kubitschek was killed in 1976 by the military dictatorship, according to a new report by the Special Commission on Political Deaths and Disappearances (CEMDP) which contradicts the text of the National Truth Commission. The official version still in force is that the politician was the victim of a car accident.

Revealed by the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, the information was confirmed by GLOBO. The opinion prepared by historian Maria Cecília Adão, rapporteur of the case of JK’s death at CEMDP, will be analyzed by the other advisors of the commission.

“Given the extensive number of documents for analysis and the need to inform family members about the content of the investigations, it was decided that the vote would take place after contact with the families”, states the collegiate, in a note. “It is reiterated that the report is based on elements that were already public, such as those collected within the scope of the Federal Public Ministry Inquiry nº 1.30.008.000307/2013-79. The remaining elements, prepared during the work of CEMDP, will be disclosed when the deliberation is concluded.”

A meeting was scheduled for April 24, in São Paulo, but was postponed at the request of the members, who claimed the need for more time to analyze the report, which is more than 5 thousand pages long.

A State body, CEMDP was established by law in 1995, during the government of Fernando Henrique Cardoso, and has technical-administrative support from the Ministry of Human Rights. Its purpose is to recognize people who died or disappeared due to political activities between 1961 and 1988, search for the location of the bodies and issue opinions on the requests presented by family members.

In the midst of the military dictatorship, and in the context of Operation Condor, JK died on the Presidente Dutra Highway, but there are different versions about the cause of the loss of control of the Opala in which the former president and his driver, Geraldo Ribeiro, were traveling.

The dictatorship assured that it was an accident, stating that the car had been hit by a bus during an attempt to overtake. The state Truth commissions in São Paulo and Minas Gerais, in addition to the São Paulo municipal commission, defended the hypothesis of a political attack.

To support this version, they gathered evidence that there was no collision with the bus and pointed out that the vehicle lost control due to an external action, such as mechanical sabotage, gunshot or even poisoning of the driver.

In February last year, the Lula government decided to reopen the case of the former president’s death, based on a report by engineer and expert Sergio Ejzenberg, hired by the Federal Public Ministry and completed in 2019.

The report disputes previous analyzes and rejects the hypothesis that the accident was caused by a collision between the Opala and a bus before the vehicle collided with a trailer. Ejzenberg’s expertise is one of rapporteur Maria Cecília’s references in producing the report.

“CEMDP reinforces its commitment to permanent dialogue with the families of victims of state violence, who have been and will always be protagonists in the search for memory, truth and justice”, says the commission.