2023-06-16 15:03:29
Seven days after the founding of the PSTU, José Luís and Rosa Sundermann were murdered in São Carlos, in the interior of São Paulo, on June 12, 1994. They have been 29 years of impunity, without the justice even pointing out a suspect for the crime.
By: Editorial PSTU Brasil
Rosa and Zé were militants of the Socialist Convergence and were two martyrs in the construction of the recently founded PSTU. Rosa had just been elected to the first Central Committee of the party, at its founding congress. José Luís was a member of the board of the Union of Employees of the Federal University of São Carlos and of Fasubra (Federation of Unions of Technical-Administrative Workers of Public Institutions of Higher Education in Brazil).
They were well-known activists in the region. Known, above all, for the courage with which they confronted the violent land-owning oligarchies. In addition to the struggles of their unions, and others, such as that of the orange pickers, in 1990 and 1993, they led strikes by cane cutters and drew the fury of the sugar bosses and the hostility of the forces of repression.
A political crime in the Brazil of impunity
The execution of Rosa and Zé has all the characteristics of a political crime. At the time, a parallel investigation was carried out to unravel the murders, which pointed to the owners of the Ipiranga sugar and alcohol plant as possible masterminds, precisely because of the strikes led by the couple. At that time, they were heavily threatened, including by police officers. The hacienda owners maintained ties with the landowners of Pará, especially with Jairo de Andrade, who bought land, machinery, and maintained houses of prostitution in the region. Jairo was even linked to the murders of the landless.
He mode of operation of the executions, in turn, also highlights the professional nature of the action. The assassin entered the house by jumping over the wall and shot Zé Luís in the head while the couple were watching television. Rosa tried to defend herself against her, was shot in the arm, hit with the butt of the butt, and was also killed with a shot to the head.
After the crime, the murderer fled without taking any objects. Despite the explicit evidence of a political execution, carried out by a professional assassin, the police did not want to pursue this line of investigation. The parallel report was delivered to the authorities, both the Civil and Military Police and the Public Ministry, but the case was filed.
The 29 years of impunity for the brutal murder of Zé Luís and Rosa reinforce the historical mark of a country in which killing workers, in the countryside and in the city, has always been an act of the powerful, who have the dominance of the State and its laws.
The case of Zé Luís and Rosa is added to the massacre of landless workers in Eldorado do Pará (April 17, 1996); the murder of Sister Dorothy in Anapu, Pará, on February 12, 2005; to the execution of Marielle Franco and her driver Anderson in the city of Rio de Janeiro, on March 14, 2018; the murder of the Brazilian indigenista Bruno Pereira and the British journalist Dom Phillips, in the Valle do Javari, in Amazonas, on June 5, 2022; to the murder of dozens of rural workers, quilombolas and indigenous people, who are confronting the colonial latifundismo.
Zé Luis and Rosa, present!
Almost three decades later, the combative memory of Zé Luís and Rosa remains, as well as their example of struggle. In 2013, they were symbolically amnestied by the Amnesty Caravan, due to the persecution of the State, and today their names are in the institute linked to the PSTU, as well as the José Luís and Rosa Sundermann Publishing House, dedicated to Marxist works and militant education. and revolutionary activists.
This barbaric crime reinforces, especially today, the importance of the self-defense of workers’ organizations against the violence of the bosses and the repressive apparatus. It also shows that the state cannot be trusted to investigate crimes against our class and the need for the movement to carry out its own investigations.
Zé Luís and Rosa continue to inspire both the old guard and the new generations. Demanding punishment, demanding justice, for all these years, is proof that we are alive, and while we are here, we will fight for the banners that Zé Luís and Rosa Sundermann carried throughout their lives.
Zé Luís and Rosa are our fallen martyrs in the fight for socialism!
Zé Luís and Rosa Sundermann: present!
José Luís and Rosa Sundermann, present: 29 years of impunity!
Article published in www.pstu.org.br
Translation: Natalia Estrada.
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