Born in Bocaiuva, Minas Gerais, on November 3, 1935, Herbert José de Souza, or betinho, as he was better known, he was the fourth child of the couple Henrique Souza and Maria da Conceição Figueiredo. The family suffered from a serious genetic disease, the Hemophilia, who first led to the death of his older brother, who was barely two years old, in a domestic accident in which the bleeding from a cut cannot be stopped.
Betinho grew up in the rural reality of the interior of Minas Gerais, where he witnessed, in his father's work, who headed the warehouse in an agricultural prison, the pain of social inequalities. He moved to Belo Horizonte in 1950, where he received treatment for hemophilia and where he would also be stricken with tuberculosis.
It was also in Belo Horizonte that Betinho started his path of social struggles. In 1960, he helped found Ação Popular, a political and social organization that believed in social transformation towards socialist ideals. In 1962, he graduated from the Federal University of Minas Gerais as a sociologist.
His political engagement went further between 1961 and 1964, as Betinho became involved in the political struggle against the Military Coup and ended up going to Uruguay in search of exile. After a year in exile, he clandestinely returned to the country, where he remained illegally and hidden from agents of the dictatorship. returned to exile in 1971, when the military government tightened its actions of repression and persecution, but this time it took refuge in Chile. Betinho was honored in the song “O bêbado ea equilibrista”, by João Bosco & Aldir Blanc and performed by Elis Regina. In the song, he is mentioned as follows: “Who dreams of the return of Henfil's brother”, referring to one of his brothers, cartoonist Henrique de Souza Filho, also known as “Henfil”.
In Chile, Betinho found himself facing another dictatorship, that of General Augusto Pinochet, which led him again to seek refuge, this time in Panama. He then left for Canada, where he lived and worked on the ideas that became the starting point for the formation of Ibase (Brazilian Institute of Social and Economic Analysis), which was founded in 1981, when Herbert de Souza finally returned to parents.
The former student of the Faculty of Administration and Economic Sciences of the Federal University of Minas Gerais became a symbol of the struggle for amnesty for political prisoners and convicts. His return was marked by his performance at Ibase as a social researcher who sought to support social movements and democratize information and communication. Its initiatives generated several very important fruits: advances in the discussions on the reform and the fight against racism until the creation of the first internet access provider in the country, the Alternate
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In 1988, hemophilia killed his other two brothers, who were also carriers of the disease. Henrique de Souza Filho and Francisco Mário de Sousa, or Chico Mário, suffered from AIDS contracted in the blood transfusions they received as a form of hemophilia treatment. Betinho discovered that he was also a carrier of the HIV virus, contracted in the same way as his brothers. Since then, he has become one of the biggest activists for awareness and fight for the acquisition of rights for patients with the disease, such as the free availability of medicines used in the treatment.
In the last years of his life, Betinho fought with great determination for the causes he believed in. He actively participated in the impeachment process of then President Fernando Collor and was one of the members of the Movement for Ethics in Politics. He was also one of the founders of the Citizenship Action Against Misery and for Life, an organization dedicated to fighting hunger and poverty in the country. He also participated in the founding of Viva Rio, a movement dedicated to combating violence and seeking social justice.
The figure of Herbert de Souza became emblematic within the universe of struggles for human rights and he was even nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Hemophiliac and HIV carrier, he died on August 9, 1997, in Rio de Janeiro.
His name is still remembered as one of the biggest actors in the struggles for the improvement of social conditions for those who live destitute. His story and that of his brothers, who were also great figures in the different fields to which they dedicated themselves, is portrayed in the documentary “Three blood brothers”, which admirably shows the trajectory of suffering, courage, struggle for social justice, facing a dictatorship and enormous compassion for suffering alien.
by Lucas Oliveira
Graduated in Sociology
