The Washington Post/The Associated Press, 07/10/2012
RIO DE JANEIRO — Rio de Janeiro’s former archbishop who provided shelter to thousands of people opposed to the military regimes that once ruled Brazil, Argentina and Chile has died at age 91.
The Archdiocese of Rio de Janeiro said Tuesday on its website that Eugenio de Araujo Sales died of a heart attack in his sleep late Monday.
Sales was ordained as a priest in 1943 in the northeastern city of Natal. In 1971 he became archbishop of Rio de Janeiro, a position he held until 2001 when he retired.
One year earlier, he told the O Globo newspaper that from 1976-1982 he provided shelter to close to 5,000 Brazilian opponents of Brazil’s 1964-1985 military regime and political refugees fleeing the dictatorships of Argentina and Chile.
