The decree published on Thursday renders “ineffective” the resolution that terminated the work of the Special Commission on Political Deaths and Disappearances and declares “the continuity of activities.”
Brazilian Human Rights Minister, Silvio Almeida, He praised Lula’s initiative as “an important step towards ensuring memory, truth and justice”. With its reconstruction, “the work illegally interrupted by the previous search and identification of the dead and missing will continue,” he added in a statement.
Lula ordered the resumption of investigations into the crimes of the Brazilian dictatorship
The Commission, created in 1995 to investigate political repression during the dictatorship and provide reparation to the victims, was eliminated by Bolsonaroa former army captain and fervent defender of the military regime, two days before his term ends at the end of 2022. According to official figures, Political repression left at least 434 dead and missing in Brazil between 1946 and 1988, turbulent decades that included the dictatorship.
The number of victims is considerably lower than that left by de facto governments in other Latin American countries such as Chile (3,200) or Argentina (30,000, according to human rights organizations). But that number is lower than that of other Latin American countries.The report does not include hundreds of victims of militias created to suppress agrarian conflicts or the massacres of indigenous people in the advance of the occupation of the territory by the State.
Unlike Argentina, which tried state agents accused of committing crimes during the dictatorship (1976-1983), in In Brazil, the chapter was settled with an Amnesty Law of 1979.
“It’s a first step,” the reaction of human rights organizations after Lula’s announcement
He human rights institute Vladimir Herzog celebrated the decisionbut said that this is a “first step.” The commission “was abandoned for a long period and in recent years suffered systematic attacks and dismantling “which contributed to the unnecessary suffering of the families of the missing,” the organization said.
“The Brazilian state still needs to make progress in creating other mechanisms” for reparation, he added.
Although he received support, he was also criticized by other human rights organizations for suspending official events on March 31, the 60th anniversary of the military coup that overthrew President Joao Goulart (1961-1964) and established an authoritarian regime. The president argued that the 1964 coup “is already part of history” and said he was “more concerned with the coup on January 8, 2023.”
That day, thousands of Bolsonaristas invaded the headquarters of the three powers in Brasilia, calling on the military to depose Lula, a week after taking office. Bolsonaro and several of his ministers are being investigated for participating in an alleged “coup plan” to stay in power after his defeat in the 2022 elections.
Source: Ambito
