Soledad no Recife

Capítulo 10

Abstract

The book Soledad no Recife goes through testimonies and confessions in its
revival of the time spent by the Paraguayan militant, Soledad Barret in Recife in 1973,
and the betrayal that led to her torture and murder at the hands of the military
dictatorship.
Denounced by her fellow comrade and lover, Daniel, afterwards known as Corporal
Anselmo, Soledade dies with a group of aspiring guerrillas, in the Pernambuco capital,
at the hands of Commissioner Sérgio Paranhos Fleury‟s squad. The episode became
known as “The São Bento Farm Massacre”, and is seen more as an act of
extermination rather than an armed confrontation.
The whole intregue is the inspiration behind the novel, in which Urariano Mota – with
the credentials of someone who lived through and survived the years after 1964 – picks
up the threads of the betrayal woven against Soledad and against the country at that
time, with the reflexive attitude of those who go back in time. The life and death of
Soledad are a strong contradiction to the “official history” propagated by the media of
the time, as well as being a testimony to State violence.