The federal government of Brazil has introduced an settlement to acknowledge its accountability within the homicide of Vladimir Herzog, a journalist and dissident who was killed throughout the nation’s dictatorship interval.
On Thursday, the federal government agreed to a press release of legal responsibility and a compensation package deal for Herzog’s household, amounting to three million Brazilian reais, or $544,800.
The settlement additionally affirmed the choice of a federal court docket earlier this yr to grant Herzog’s widow, Clarice Herzog, retroactive funds of a pension she ought to have obtained after her husband’s demise, amounting to about $6,000 monthly.
In a press release recorded by The Related Press information company, Herzog’s son, Ivo Herzog, applauded the federal government’s determination to simply accept accountability.
“This apology is just not merely symbolic,” Ivo stated. “It’s an act by the state that makes us imagine the present Brazilian state doesn’t assume just like the Brazilian state of that point.”
He added that his household’s story represented a whole lot, if not 1000’s, of others who had their family members killed throughout the dictatorship interval from 1964 to 1985.
Having the federal government acknowledge its wrongdoing, he defined, has been a decades-long struggle.
“This has been a wrestle not solely of the Herzog household, however of all of the households of the murdered and disappeared,” stated Ivo, who now runs a human rights nonprofit named for his father, the Vladimir Herzog Institute.
Vladimir Herzog was 38 years previous on the time of his demise in 1975, halfway by way of the dictatorship interval.
The Brazilian military had overthrown left-wing President Joao Goulart a decade earlier and put in a authorities that turned recognized for human rights abuses, together with the arbitrary arrest and torture of dissidents, college students, politicians, Indigenous folks and anybody else deemed to be a menace.
Many went into exile. Some had been killed or just disappeared with out a hint. The variety of deaths is estimated to be about 500, although some specialists place that determine at 10,000 or larger.
Herzog was a outstanding journalist, and initially, he too went into exile in the UK. However he returned to Brazil to function the information editor for a public tv station, TV Cultura. It was in that position that, on October 24, 1975, Herzog was summoned by authorities to a military barrack.
There, army officers indicated he could be requested to testify about his political connections. Herzog voluntarily left to supply his assertion. However he by no means returned dwelling.
The army later claimed Herzog’s demise was a suicide, and it launched a staged photograph of his physique hanging from a rope.
However a rabbi who later examined Herzog’s physique discovered indicators of torture. Herzog’s funeral, carried out with full non secular rites, became a second of reckoning for the Brazilian dictatorship, and the staged {photograph} turned a logo of its abuses.
His son Ivo was solely 9 years previous on the time. Earlier this yr, he spoke to Al Jazeera in regards to the launch of a movie referred to as I’m Nonetheless Right here that highlighted one other homicide dedicated underneath the dictatorship: that of Rubens Paiva, a politician.
Like Herzog, Paiva voluntarily left to provide testimony on the request of army officers and was by no means seen alive once more. His physique was by no means discovered. It took a long time for Paiva’s household to obtain a demise certificates that acknowledged the army’s position in his demise.
Ivo praised the movie I’m Nonetheless Right here for elevating consciousness in regards to the injustices of the dictatorship. He additionally advised Al Jazeera that he hoped for the Brazilian authorities to acknowledge the hurt it had carried out to his household and to amend the 1979 Amnesty Legislation that shielded many army officers from dealing with accountability.
“What are they ready for? For everybody related to that interval to die?” Herzog advised journalist Eleonore Hughes. “Brazil has a politics of forgetfulness, and we now have developed very, little or no.”
On Thursday, Jorge Messias, Brazil’s federal authorized counsellor, framed the settlement with the Herzog household as a step ahead.
“Right this moment, we’re witnessing one thing unprecedented: The Brazilian state formally honouring the reminiscence of Vladimir Herzog,” he stated.
He additionally in contrast the 1964 coup d’etat with the trendy circumstances of Brazilian politics. On January 8, 2023, 1000’s of supporters of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro stormed authorities buildings in Brazil’s capital, after the 2022 election noticed their candidate defeated.
The present president, left-wing chief Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, has in contrast that incident to a coup. Bolsonaro testified this month in court docket over prices he helped orchestrate an effort to overturn the election end result.
“Within the 2022 election, we stood at a crossroads: Both to reaffirm democracy or transfer towards the closure of the Brazilian state, with all of the horrors we lived by way of for 21 years,” Messias stated, referencing the horrors of the dictatorship.