On February 17, Roberto de Fortini died, a great anti-fascist combatant and hero of the people. VPR militant and guerrilla articulation in the northwestern Gaucho, Fortini was directly involved in the armed struggle against the military regime.
Always living in a simple and reclusive way, the Italian never talked about his past, at least not to anyone who has exposed the public today. What is known to Fortini is that he comes from the region of Veneto, Italy. In testimony in 2014, said that ‘The experience I have from small where practically attacked huge columns well armed with Germans and fascists’ ’ . He accompanied the Italian guerrilla leader, in operations against the fascists.
In the 1960s, it reappears in Passo Fundo as a street vendor. When the armed resistance against the military regime is intensified, Fontini quickly became involved with the revolutionary organizations of Passo Fundo, the VPR and the POC, quickly becoming a regional VPR leader, responsible for the regional revolutionary court and getting involved with the work of Advertising, especially among student means.
When Captain Carlos Lamarca deserted from the reactionary army and integrates the guerrillas, the initial idea of the VPR was that he would take refuge on the border with Argentina in the cities of Três Passos and Lieutenant Portela. Fortini was the large organizer of the guerrilla infrastructure in the region, preparing the land for the arrival of Lamarca. The plan, however, did not materialize. In 1970, reactionary intelligence investigated the ‘Pesqueira do Alto Uruguay Society Ltda.’ VPR's facade company whose Fortini was responsible for “suspected smuggling”. The justification was a lie. The reactionary military had been monitoring the supposed company for a long time.
In jail, Fortini was arrested with many other companions and brutally tortured. He says he was threatened to be deported back to Italy and handed over to the mafia. It was in one of these torture sessions with electric shocks that Fortini lost the ability to speak fluent Portuguese. Until the end of his life, he began to mix his tongue with Spanish and Italian.
Fortini was released in 1971, along with 70 other political prisoners, in exchange for the freedom of Swiss ambassador Giovanni Bucher, kidnapped by the VPR. Again, Fortini's story is obscure, and he comes to live clandestinely with his companion Nadia and his adoption son on a VPR base somewhere in missions in Argentina. Where he lived until his death, in a false name and always stating that he did not live in his home, but on a base of VPR support. On February 17, 2024, at the age of 87, his heart stopped beating, but Fortini's memory always lives, like every great fighter of the people, is immortal.