The Commission of Political Dead and Missing and the Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp) identified the remains of Denis Casemiro and Grenaldo de Jesus Silva. Both were among the missing politicians buried by agents of the military dictatorship in the clandestine ditch of the Dom Bosco Cemetery in Perus, in the state capital. 
“Both fought for democracy and freedom and were arrested by the army, tortured, murdered and had their missing bodies. Identifying them is a fundamental step in historical reparation and the right to memory and truth,” they said in a statement released on Tuesday (15).
Grenaldo was a military navy military, born in São Luís (MA). He was arrested in 1964 and expelled from the institution while claiming better working conditions. He even fleeing prison and living in clandestinity, but was killed on May 30, 1972 while trying to capture an aircraft at Congonhas Airport in São Paulo (SP).
IML documents reported that Grenaldo was buried on June 1, 1972 at Dom Bosco cemetery as an indigent, and was missing until his bone remnants identified by the Perus project team.
Denis Casemiro was born in Votuporanga (SP), was a bricklayer, rural worker and acted politically at the revolutionary popular avant -garde (VPR). He was arrested in April 1971, tortured and executed by the team of the Department of Political and Social Order (Dops), coordinated by delegate Sérgio Fleury. At the time of his death, versions of escape attempts were forged “resulted in his death.”
By 2018, the work had already identified the remnants of his brother, Dimas Antonio Casemiro.
Identification
Denis Casemiro had already been identified in 1991. But, according to Unifesp, that had been an incorrect identification. Now the works have achieved confirmation through a stage of genetic compatibility.
The recognition of the two missing was possible through the Perus project, which seeks to identify the bones found in the Perus ditch. The project is the result of a partnership of the Ministry of Human Rights and Citizenship, the São Paulo City Hall, the Commission and the Unifesp, through the Center for Anthropology and Forensic Archeology.
Grenaldo and Denis were identified a few days after the Federal Government made a public apology regarding the neglect in the custody and identification of the bone remnants of the clandestine force of Perus. At the time, the Minister of Human Rights and Citizenship, Macaé Evaristo, asked apologies to the victims of the victims.
“The Ministry of Human Rights and Citizenship, in the name of the Brazilian State, apologizes to the relatives of the missing political missing during the Brazilian military dictatorship, which began in 1964, and to the Brazilian society for negligence, between 1990 and 2014, in the conduct of the identification work of the bones, found in the clandestine ditch, located in the Dom Bosco Cemetery in São Paulo,” said the minister.
An act will be held tomorrow (16), in São Paulo, from 11am, to announce the identification work. The ceremony may be accompanied by youtube.
Clandestine ditch
The ditch was discovered by journalist Caco Barcellos in 1990 when he was investigating homicides committed by military police. Analyzing expert reports in a room of the Forensic Medical Institute (IML), particularly in the processes from 1971 to 1973, referring to referrals of dead made by the Department of Political and Social Order (DOPs), the journalist noted that there was the letter “T” written with red pencil in some documents. He then asked the IML employees the meaning of the marking and found that the letter T referred to the “terrorist.”
Barcellos reported the management of the then mayor of São Paulo, Luiza Erundina, about the existence of this ditch, which determined the beginning of the excavations. At the site, 1,049 bones were found without identification of victims of death squads, indigent and political prisoners.
As soon as the ditch was discovered, the city signed an agreement with the State University of Campinas (Unicamp) to identify the bones. There was also referral to the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). The work was interrupted shortly thereafter and, in 2002, the bones were taken to the Araçá Cemetery in São Paulo, under the responsibility of the University of São Paulo (USP). But the delay for completion of the identification work was questioned in a public civil action of 2009 of the Federal Public Prosecution Service.
In 2014, a partnership of the Special Secretariat of Human Rights (today Ministry of Human Rights), the Municipal Secretariat of Human Rights and Citizenship and the Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp) allowed the resumption of work of Identification of remains rescued from the clandestine ditch from the Perus cemetery. But few bones have been identified to this day.
The remains of only five people, of the 42, probably murdered during the military dictatorship and buried in the Perus ditch, had been identified: Denis Casemiro, identified in 1991; Frederico Eduardo Mayr (1992); Flávio Carvalho Molina (2005); Dimas Antônio Casemiro (2018) and Aluísio Palhano Pedreira Ferreira (2018).
