Calls for Access to Secret Archives for Victims’ Families
On December 14, 2010, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights handed down a long-awaited decision in the case of Gomes Lund and others (Guerrilha do Araguaia) vs. Brazil. A landmark decision, this 119-page ruling forces the Brazilian government to publicly accept responsibility for grave human rights violations committed during the military regime, open its archives to the families of victims of repression, and pay millions of dollars in reparations. The ruling is the first time an international court has held the Brazilian state liable for these offenses; because of Brazil’s amnesty law, no Brazilian military officer has ever been successfully prosecuted. If the incoming government of Dilma Rousseff complies with the ruling and declassifies the long-secret military archives on abuses, the IACHR decision could become a benchmark in the elusive search for truth, accountability and justice for human rights offenses in Brazil as well as Latin America as a whole.
The case –Lund vs. Brazil– revolves around the military’s counterinsurgency campaign against Guerrilha do Araguaia–a resistance movement made up of young militants of the Brazilian Communist Party, between April 1972 and January 1975. Between 3 and 10,000 members of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and federal police launched a major offensive against members of the Guerrilha do Araguaia. Members of the group were detained; after being identified, they were killed and buried secretly in the rainforest. Some evidence indicates that many of their bodies were later unearthed and burned or thrown into rivers in the region. Approximately 62 insurgents remain disappeared. (more…)
