Justice Delayed . . .

One aspect of Brazil's recent past that cries out to be addressed officially is the human rights record of the military dictatorship that ruled Brazil from 1964 to 1985. An amnesty "law" was passed in 1979, but last week the Inter American Commission on Human Rights filed an application with the Inter-American Court of Human Rights as a result of a petition filed by relatives of some 70 persons disappeared as part of the government's actions against the Araguaia guerilla movement to have the amnesty annulled and the murders be investigated as the crimes they are.

To which I have but one word to say: finally. Unlike Argentina and Chile, Brazil has failed miserably in addressing its legacy of human rights abuses during the military dictatorship. As the Human Rights Watch press release notes, "No Brazilian official has been criminally charged for human rights violations committed during the dictatorship."

Calls for accountability in Brazil have grown in the past two years. Brazil's highest court, the Supreme Federal Tribunal, is currently deciding challenges to the Amnesty Law's applicability to human rights violations and to the laws allowing for the permanent secrecy of government documents. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's solicitor general's office (Advocacia Geral da União) has opposed such challenges and filed briefs in support of the status quo. [my emphasis]

Lula should be behind this. he has the political capital to spend on this and he should realize that any effort to crush impunity in Brazil will strengthen the nation's democracy.