Better late than never department: First Conviction for Dictatorship Crimes in Brazil

June 22, 2021 11:09AM EDT

First Conviction for Dictatorship Crimes in Brazil
Justice Should not Take 50 Years

Maria Laura Canineu
Brazil Director, Americas Division



Demonstrators show photos of people killed during Brazil's dictatorship outside a police station that used to be a torture center used by the dictatorship in Sao Paulo, Brazil on August 5th, 2019. © 2019 Andre Penner/AP Photo



A Brazilian court has issued the first conviction of a state agent for human rights abuses committed during the dictatorship of 1964 to 1985. Yesterday a judge in São Paulo sentenced retired police officer Carlos Alberto Augusto to 2 years and 11 months in prison for the kidnapping of Edgar de Aquino Duarte.

Duarte was among at least 434 people who were killed or forcibly disappeared during Brazil’s dictatorship, according to the National Truth Commission. Thousands more were illegally detained or tortured, yet those responsible were shielded by a 1979 amnesty law. The Supreme Court upheld the law in 2010, although the Inter-American Court of Human Rights later found that it violates Brazil’s obligations under international law.

Judge Silvio César Arouck Gemaque ruled that kidnapping is an ongoing crime that is not subject to the amnesty law and should be punished. Prosecutor Andrey Mendonça told Human Rights Watch that the conviction was “historic.”

Duarte, a naval officer, opposed the 1964 military coup and was expelled from the navy. He ended his political activities and was working as a financial broker when an informant mentioned his name to the authorities. On June 13, 1971, he was arrested without a court order and held incommunicado. He was last seen in 1973. His body was never recovered.

Federal prosecutors charged three men with his kidnapping; two have since died, including former army colonel Carlos Brilhante Ustra, who commanded a torture center where Duarte was also held, according to survivors who testified in this case. President Jair Bolsonaro, a former army captain who praises the dictatorship, has called Ustra “a Brazilian hero.”

More:
https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/06/22/first-conviction-dictatorship-crimes-brazil

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Very old article from Amnesty International:

Brazil Hides its Crimes Through Inhumane Legislation

It has been 25 years since Brazil’s military regime ended. Yet, the crimes and violence enforced by the country’s authorities from 1964 to 1985 have failed to see the light of justice.

As a condition to allow the restoration of democracy in Brazil in 1979, the military regime enacted legislation designed to provide blanket amnesty for ”political or political related crimes” committed since 1961. The law has been used since then, to provide state agents with immunity from crimes they committed during the country’s military era. Because of it, state officials were able to get away with torture, enforced disappearances and killings. These crimes are so grave, that they fall under the jurisdiction of international law.

A few months ago, in April of 2010, the Brazilian Supreme Court had an opportunity to repeal the amnesty law. Many of us hoped that the “new Brazil” would show maturity and respect for human rights. Instead, they decided to uphold the old interpretation, indicating that crimes committed by members of the military regime were political acts and therefore they were protected by the amnesty law.

Brazil is the only country in South America that has failed to address human rights violations of past regimes. While the country still debates issues surrounding the interpretation of the law, countries like Argentina, Peru and Chile have gone a long way to bring to justice those who oversaw the human rights violations of thousands of victims, under their past governments. As the most recent example, a few days ago Argentina’s Court sentenced the country’s first military dictatoropens in a new tab, Jorge Rafael Videla, for life in prison. He was found guilty for committing crimes against humanity between 1976 and 1981, when he was head of the country’s military regime.

In an effort to uphold justice, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights had to step in, in what is known as the Araguaia Caseopens in a new tab. After a long and careful review of the facts and circumstances, the Court found Brazil responsible for the enforced disappearance of sixty-two people, between 1972 and 1974. Importantly, the international court stated opens in a new tabthat Brazil violated the right of truth when its authorities failed to investigate the disappearances and when they decided not to prosecute those responsible for the ruthless acts.

More:
https://www.amnestyusa.org/updates/brazil-hides-its-crimes-through-inhumane-legislation/