Brazil Denounced in Inter-American Court for Insulting Dictatorship Victims

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The PSOL (Socialism and Liberty Party) bench in the Chamber of Deputies, the Vladimir Herzog Institute and the Center for the Preservation of Political Memory denounced the Bolsonaro government to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights for failing to comply with the provisions of the court decision that convicted Brazil for human rights violations in the case of the Araguaia Guerrilla Action.

On Monday, May 4th, President Jair Bolsonaro welcomed the retired Army Lieutenant Colonel Sebastião Curió Rodrigues de Moura, 85, one of the military officers responsible for the repression of the Araguaia Guerrillas in the 1970s, during the military dictatorship.

The retired military officer is a former CIE (Army Information Center) officer and former SNI (National Information Service) agent.

According to files kept by the retired military officer and disclosed in 2009 to the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo, the Armed Forces executed 41 militants of the Araguaia guerrilla force who were imprisoned and tied up. In total, 67 militants were killed during the conflict with the military in the Araguaia region.

In 2010, Brazil was convicted for the detention, torture, and disappearance of guerrilla soldiers in the Araguaia in the case that became known as Gomes Lund. The ruling of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, unanimously approved, provides for the adoption of actions by the Brazilian state to remedy the violations committed during the period of the military dictatorship (1964-1985).

The denunciation calls for Brazil to be summoned to a hearing to assess compliance with the ruling and for the Court to issue a new decision to supervise the country.

According to the PSOL legislators and human rights organizations, by welcoming Curió, the Bolsonaro government is “promoting misinformation and insulting the memory of the victims of the Gomes Lund case and others and of all the missing people, killed and tortured by the Brazilian dictatorship”.

They also accuse the federal government of fostering “new violations of the right to the truth by spreading false information about what happened with the Araguaia Guerrillas and during the dictatorship in general”.

The motivation behind this is the publication in the SECOM’s (Secretariat of Social Communication of the Presidency) official account this week. The post classifies the public officials who acted to repress the Araguaia Guerrillas in the 1970s during the military dictatorship as “heroes of Brazil”.

On Wednesday, May 6th, the PFDC (Federal Attorney for Citizen’s Rights), a body linked to the PGR (Office of the Prosecutor General), petitioned the opening of an investigation on the head of the SECOM, Fabio Wajngarten, for potential support for crimes against humanity.

Source: Folhapress