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Sarmiento Coelho da Paz, who was evidently detained by police seeking her son. She was released shortly afterwards.
ΑΙ
Al groups protested against the continuing arrests, which experts interpreted as symptoms of the confrontation between President Geisel and army sectors. Some arrests were carried out by government bodies opposed to his liberal- ization policy. Other arrests were made by unofficial groups opposed to political relaxation, probably to illustrate the extent of "subversion". This absence of a single detaining authority has made it particularly difficult for friends and families to locate missing persons.
In reaction to the continuing arrests and disappearances, the Roman Catholic Church, particularly Archbishop Arns of São Paulo and the São Paulo Justice and Peace Commission, members of the only legal opposition party, the Movimento Democratico Brasilerio (MDB), the Brazilian Order of Lawyers (OAB) and friends and relatives of prisoners, became more vocal in their efforts to draw public attention to these transgressions of human rights.
In November, the MDB won a surprising victory in elections to the Senate and the House of Representatives, after a campaign which focused to a large extent on human rights issues. Although the opposition still has not a majority in either house, it succeeded in instituting a parliamentary inquiry. Hopes were high that the MDB would open an investigation into the cases of some 22 persons (including several AI cases) whose "disappearance" and feared deaths in custody over an 18-month period has become a cause célèbre in Brazil.
Press censorship was lifted slightly by President Geisel following the elections, and advertisements seeking the missing persons and reports of new arrests and alleged torture appeared in the Brazilian press for the first time since the im- position of Institutional Act Number 5 in 1968.
To avert an inquiry, Minister of Justice Armando Falção gave information to the press concerning a number of persons, some of them amongst the list of the "disappeared". However, in many cases his information related to their previous arrests. In other instances Mr Falção claimed that the persons named were not in custody, or that no records concerning them were available. AI has addressed a memorandum to the Brazilian Government which points out the discrepancies between the information released by the Ministry of Justice and our own infor- mation.
However, reports that hardliners had forced President Geisel to back down from his intention to allow some latitude to the MDB and rumours that MDB deputies would be declared cassado (lose their political and civil rights) if they pressed for an inquiry led the MDB to seek a compromise course. Instead of iniating a parliamentary inquiry, the MDB moved to ask Mr Palção to appear before Congress to answer questions about the disappeared. The government party Arena defeated this motion, and has tried strongly to link the MDB to the Brazilian Communist Party in an effort to silence the debate on those who have disappeared. AI, however, has continued to press for an investigation and has been particularly active on behalf of Ana Rosa Kucinski Silva and her husband, Wilson Silva, both amongst the disappeared. Ana Rosa Silva's case has been widely publicized in connection with International Women's Year 1975.
AI has also taken up the cases of Communist Party (Moscow-line) members
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