(Brasilia) Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Thursday ordered the reestablishment of a commission of inquiry into political crimes committed during the military dictatorship (1964-1985).
The Special Commission on Political Deaths and Disappearances, created in 1995, was dissolved by his far-right predecessor Jair Bolsonaro at the end of his term in December 2022.
Lula’s decree, published in the Official Journal on Thursday, annuls the decision that had ended the work of this commission, and provides for “the resumption of its activities.”
Human Rights Minister Silvio Almeida welcomed in a statement an “important step to guarantee memory, truth and justice.”
The reestablishment of the special commission will allow, according to him, “to continue the work illegally interrupted by the previous administration, of searching for and identifying the dead and missing” during the dictatorship.
Brazil’s military regime is responsible for the deaths or disappearances of at least 434 people, according to the National Truth Commission, another body created to investigate the crimes of the dictatorship.
Unlike neighboring Argentina, which tried state agents accused of committing crimes during the dictatorship (1976-1983), in Brazil the chapter was closed by a 1979 amnesty law.
Lula, who had already presided over Brazil for two terms, from 2003 to 2010, has been back in power since January 2023. Many human rights groups have since called for him to re-establish the Special Commission on Political Deaths and Disappearances.
PHOTO ERALDO PERES, ARCHIVES ASSOCIATED PRESS
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva speaks during the presentation of the Harvest Plan at the Planalto Presidential Palace in Brasilia, Brazil, Wednesday, July 3, 2024.
Lula had been criticized at the end of March by these organizations for having canceled the commemorations of the 60the anniversary of the coup that installed military rule, while tributes to the victims were planned.
On March 31, 1964, this coup deposed President Joao Goulart.
Lula, a former trade unionist who led a historic strike during the dictatorship, sparked controversy by saying the 1964 coup was “already part of history.”
“I am more concerned about the coup of January 8, 2023 than the one of 1964,” he said.
Earlier last year, thousands of supporters of Jair Bolsonaro, their defeated champion in the 2022 presidential election, ransacked the seats of power in Brasilia, calling on the army to depose Lula, a week after his inauguration.
Mr Bolsonaro has never hidden his admiration for the military regime that ruled Brazil for 21 years from 1964 to 1985.
In 2016, he notably declared that “the mistake of the dictatorship was to torture instead of killing.”