By Satish Sekar © Satish Sekar (June 30th^th 2013)

“When we lose the ability to become indignant with atrocities committed against others, we also lose the right to consider ourselves civilised human beings.” Vladimir Herzog[1]

The Demonstrations

They started as a popular protest against rises in transport fares. Despite avoiding paying taxes the bus companies decided to hike fares by 20%. It was the last straw for many Brasilians. A popular protest movement was born coinciding with the Confederations’ Cup. It demanded concessions on education, poverty and a drive against corruption. It was non party-political.

Further demands were added and it morphed into something new. Some targeted the government of President Dilma Rousseff. FIFA was also one of its targets. But one demand was conspicuous by its absence – justice for Brasil’s Disappeared. Brasil is a comparatively young democracy. Its military seized power in 1964 and took over two decades to hand power back.

The Confederations’ Cup ends today – the demonstrations, perhaps not. The hoard of international journalists will soon depart. The issues that resulted in Brasilians taking to the streets remain. Next year the World Cup will shine an even more intense microscope on Brasil.

By then, I hope that justice for the Disappeared will not be on the agenda. I hope by then that they will have had justice. I still cannot understand how the worst crimes of that horrid period of Brasil’s history have been ignored by the demonstrators. How is it possible to complain of police violence, but ignore kidnap, torture and murder? Such amnesia is baffling and discredits the movement, but it can learn. Time will tell if it matures after the world’s media up sticks and go home.

Amnesty Laws

During those terrible two decades, especially under Emílio Garrastazú Médici, opponents, whether armed or not, disappeared. Some were murdered. In 1979 the military government passed an Amnesty law. Similar laws have been rejected in other former dictatorships. Former dictators of Chile and Argentina Generals Augusto Pinochet and Jorge Videla were among those originally protected by Amnesty laws.

Their immunity was later removed. Pinochet died before he could face trial. Videla was jailed for life in 1985 for torture and murder, but was pardoned in 1990 by Carlos Menem. In 2010 he was again jailed for life for crimes against humanity.

He received an additional 50 years for the Babies Scandal. The children of left-wing activists were kidnapped and raised by military families while their true parents were being tortured. They were usually among the Disappeared and never came back. Videla played a key role in that outrageous policy. He died in May 2013.

The Commissions

Brasil’s 1979 Amnesty law is no different. Although the statute of limitations on murder – 20 years – has elapsed, there is no limitation on prosecutions for crimes against humanity. The Eremias Delizoicov Centre for Documentation and the Families’ Commission of Political Deaths and Disappearances has a website highlighting the crimes of that era and their quest for justice.

As with other South American dictatorships, the Disappeared are finally getting to accuse their torturers from beyond the grave as forensic science tells their stories. According to the website 379 Disappeared have been named. One of the major tests of Brasil’s democracy is how it deals with the issue of the Disappeared.

President Dilma Rousseff was once a Marxist guerrilla, who was captured and tortured during the dictatorship. She was 22 at the time and could easily have become one of the Disappeared herself and is therefore cautious about how she proceeds, as she doesn’t want her actions to be seen as politically motivated revenge for her previous ordeal.

She established a Truth Commission in 2011 and a year earlier the persistent quest for justice resulted in the Organisation of American States’ Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruling that the 1979 Amnesty Law was null and void in a landmark judgement in December 2010.

No Statute of Limitations

There is therefore no barrier to prosecuting the perpetrators if there is sufficient evidence. And there is. Last year one of the most notorious of the dictatorship’s enforcers Sebastião Cúrio Rodrigues de Moura was charged over the disappearance and likely murder of five left-wing activists. The charges were thrown out under the Amnesty Law wrongly and Cúrio may yet face trial.

He is not alone. Another then Colonel, Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustra, faced charges over the murder of journalist Luiz Eduardo Merlino. His death, during the darkest days of Brasil’s dictatorship, implausibly had been claimed to have been suicide. Merlino’s relatives doggedly demanded Ustra be prosecuted. Again they have had some success, but as yet there have been no convictions in Brasil.

Another case where progress should have been made is the murder of respected journalist Vladimir Herzog. The Inter-American Commission of Human Rights came to Brasil to demand progress. The 1975 murder of Herzog could embarrass the current President of Brasil’s Football Federatoion José Maria Marin as a 1975 speech when Marin was an apologist for the dictatorship has been seen as giving the green light to torture and kill Herzog. Marin denies it.

Infamous

The infamous Operation Condor involved cooperation between various South American dictatorships in the 1970s to eliminate or torture opponents. Documents exposing the extent of the operation were unearthed in Paraguay in December 1992. But such documents and testimony of survivors is not the only evidence available to give justice to the Disappeared.

There is a will to expose the crimes of the past, including from unlikely sources. The USAID (United States Agency for International Development) provides humanitarian aid. Among the countries that have received assistance is Colombia, which has a President in Juan Manuel Santos determined to tackle the scandals of the past and a reputation that was once true of Colombia, but no longer. Among the outrages of that country’s past that Santos is facing head on is that country’s Disappeared.

Hope for the Future

Relatives of Colombia’s Disappeared have hope now. USAID has provided assistance and the prestigious Instituto Nacional de Medicina Legal y Ciencias Forenses is providing the cutting edge science. The Disappeared are able to tell their stories – finally.

“We conduct the DNA tests on the remains,” Medicina Legal’s Director Dr Carlos Eduardo Valdes explained to me exclusively. “There is a National Database of the Disappeared, so we can get the DNA of relatives and identify the remains.”

This offers a blueprint for other countries. Knowing who the victims are and when they disappeared can also help to identify perpetrators as well. There may even be the DNA of perpetrators on the remains or their clothing linking them to their crimes.

After all, these crimes occurred before anyone knew that the day would come when DNA testing could help tie them to their crimes. The Disappeared of South America’s dictatorships are beginning to accuse their torturers from beyond the grave. Brasil is no different.

---

[1] The Brasilian journalist, Vladimir Herzog, was murdered during the military dicatatorship in Brasil..