Definitive Report - Report No 120, 1971

Case No 623 (Brazil) - Complaint date: 02-FEB-70 - Closed

1. 87. The complaint made by the Federation of Workers in Chemical and Pharmaceutical Industries of the State of São Paolo is set forth in a communication dated 2 February 1970, and sent to the ILO direct. The communication was later supplemented by another, dated 9 February 1970. The complaint was referred to the Government of Brazil, which, in a communication dated 26 May 1970, submitted its observations on it.
2. 88. Brazil has not ratified the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87), but it has ratified the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98).

A. A. The complainants' allegations

• Allegations relating to the Assassination of Mr. Salvador Tolezano, Chairman of the São Paulo Bank Employees' Trade Union
  89. 89 The complainants allege that in " circumstances still obscure ", Mr. Salvador Tolezano, Chairman of the São Paulo Bank Employees' Trade Union, was " brutally murdered ". They give the following version of what occurred.
  90. 90 On Friday, 23 January, they say, Mr. Tolezano proceeded, unaccompanied, to the town of Sorocaba (about 100 km from São Paulo), there to give an address on certain aspects of labour law. He was driving a motor vehicle belonging to his union. Having delivered his address, he left for São Paulo at about 10.30 p.m. The next day (Saturday, 24 January), his wife informed the union that her husband had not returned, which was most unusual. A search was undertaken, and the vehicle used was discovered in a side road near Sorocaba; it had been destroyed by fire. On Tuesday, 27 January, Mr. Tolezano's corpse was found in a pond near Sorocaba. Death was due to asphyxiation and " it appeared that the victim had first been drugged ".
  91. 91 The complainants think it " by no means impossible that Mr. Tolezano, a genuine trade union leader, young and pugnacious, was done to death by some extremist political organisation which is unable or unwilling to understand that there are men prepared to devote their lives to a defence of the workers' rights and interests ". They go on to say that " unhappily, there is very little hope that this brutal crime will ever be completely elucidated and those responsible for it punished, since the Government seems powerless to put a stop to the activities of organisations such as the internationally notorious Death Squad, existing within the police force itself, with a view to the cold-blooded elimination of suspects or delinquents to whom the right to trial is denied ".
  92. 92 In a later communication, dated 9 February 1970, the complainants say that " police investigations point to three members of the São Paulo State Police Force " as having been responsible, and they add: " it would appear that the crime was committed by the three policemen when they tried to steal Mr. Tolezano's car, in order to carry out a hold-up of an armoured van containing the payroll of a factory at Sorocaba ".
  93. 93 In its comments, the Government of Brazil states that the police soon found out that the crime in question was " common murder ", and that the criminals themselves, who have confessed, are now in prison awaiting trial. The union leaders who signed the complaint, the Government continues, " suspected that the murder was political in character but this was not the case. Accordingly in our view the complaint becomes pointless." This, it says, " is confirmed by the telex messages " (copies of which it sent) " which show that the union leaders in question were satisfied with the results of the police investigation and cancelled the meeting they had requested with the Minister ". Since then, they had let the matter drop.

B. B. The Committee's conclusions

1. 94. The information available (derived from the complainants' second communication and from the Government's observations) shows that the incident which gave rise to the complaint had nothing to do with freedom of association. The crime committed was one of common murder and had nothing to do with the fact that the victim had been active in the trade union movement.

The Committee's recommendations

1. 95. In these circumstances, the Committee recommends that the Governing Body decide that the case calls for no further examination.