The Liberty Campaign

p. 158

A person who had been tortured by Brazilian officers during the military dictatorship of 1964-79 recounts one particular torment: “’I was ordered to stand, naked, on tiptoe, with my arms straight out beside me. Four telephone books were placed in each hand. I was already very tired, having gone without sleep for an indeterminate time, but I was ordered to maintain this position, even as they beat me with sticks on the chest and stomach. The officer told me that this position was known as “Christ the Redeemer.”’ In what mind could be found the confluence of the barbarous and the poetic that would produce ’Christ the Redeemer?’”