How the UK taught Brazil's dictators interrogation techniques

By Emily BuchananBBC World Affairs Correspondent

As the world focuses on the World Cup, which opens in Brazil in less than a fortnight, many Brazilians are wrestling with painful discoveries about the military dictatorship that ruled the country from 1964 to 1985. The BBC has found evidence that the UK actively collaborated with the generals - and trained them in sophisticated interrogation techniques.

Brazil's 21-year dictatorship is less well known abroad than that of Argentina or Chile, but it was still brutal. Hundreds died and thousands were imprisoned and tortured.

One of those tortured was a left-wing guerrilla who is now the country's president, Dilma Rousseff. She set up a Truth Commission to unearth long-buried facts about the past.

As former victims and a few military players come forward to give evidence, Britain's secret role has emerged.

By the early 1970s Brazil's rulers were engaged in a bitter struggle against left-wing guerrillas. Swept up in the oppression were union leaders, students, journalists and almost anyone who voiced opposition.

Alvaro Caldas belonged to a communist group when he was arrested in 1970. He was held inside the military police barracks in Rio for over two years.

Brazil's 21-year dictatorship is less well known abroad than that of Argentina or Chile, but it was still brutal. Hundreds died and thousands were imprisoned and tortured.

Alvaro Caldas belonged to a communist group when he was arrested in 1970. He was held inside the military police barracks in Rio for over two years.

Alvaro says his overriding emotion was fear. Periodically he would be hooded and taken out for questioning. He felt the aim was to destabilise his personality so he would confess to something he had not done. This was not physical torture but instead intense psychological pressure.

"Luckily I was only there a week, if I had been there for two weeks or a month I would have gone mad," he says.

This new kind of interrogation method came to be called the "English System". Evidence from the Truth Commission explains why.

One of the most feared torturers, Col Paulo Malhaes, gave 24 hours of testimony. He arrived in a wheelchair looking frail. He then confessed to killing and mutilating his victims. He also expressed great admiration for psychological torture which, he felt, was more effective than brute force, especially when it came to turning a left-wing militant into an infiltrator.

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http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27625540