Deputies remember amnesty and defend punishment to torturers
International treaties consider indefeasible the crimes against human rights
In a Solemn Sitting celebrating the 30 years of the Amnesty Law (Law 6.638/79), on Monday (31th), deputies recognized the importance of the law, but emphasized the need to bring to a conclusion the historical process started with its enactment.
Deputy Luiz Couto (PT-PB), one of the authors of the request for the realization of the homage, stated that at least three important questions remain unanswered: the amnesty granted to torturers, the amends to the tormented by the military regime and the opening of the archives of the period of dictatorship (1964-1985).
Luiz Couto remembered that today jurists appeal to international treaties, of which the Brazil is a signatory, to ask for punishment for the State agents who conducted crimes against human rights, which would be indefeasible. “Avoid the impunity of the ones who conducted these crimes it isn’t a quest to satisfy an enthusiasm to see them behind bars, but to give a demonstration that such acts are not tolerated in Brazil and cannot ever be forgot”, sustained.
In addition, another author of the request for the realization of the session, Pedro Wilson (PT-GO) said that “torture is a non-boilable, indefeasible crime”. According to him, “those who tortured have to be taken to the bars of Justice”.
Deputy Chico Alencar (Psol-RJ), that also suggested the solemn sitting, highlighted the importance of the opening of archives of the dictatorship. “Deny this official document is to deny the right to memory”, declared.
Against an argument, according to which the dictatorship in Brazil was mild, he remembered that the country “had no less than 20 thousand convicted by the military tribunals, 10 thousand exiled, 4,767 citizens that performed political terms of office with its rights terminated and 474 dead or missing”.
Deputy Lídice da Mata (PSB-BA) said that, past 30 years of the enactment of the Amnesty Law, the country still does not know the truth. “The amnesty as historical amnesia makes so that now a lot of people question the right to amends”, she declared, adding that a lot of people did not have even the opportunity to receive the benefit of amnesty, “like Ana Montenegro, who died without trial of its process, and even her father, who passed away five years ago”.
People’s Conquest
The President of the Chamber of Deputies, Michel Temer emphasized that the Amnesty Law “was not a concession of the Judicial Power holders, but a people’s conquest”.
According to Temer, when the keenest phase of authoritarism passed, the popular actions grew stronger. “One of these actions generated the Diretas Já movement, anoother the Amnesty Law, and this caused a redemocratization of the Brazilian life”, he added.
Deputy Mauro Benevides (PMDB-CE) reminded that the struggle was held, above all else, by the Brazilian Democratic Movement (the MDB, which made opposition to the military regime and gave birth to the PMDB). He stated that, since April 1964, the Brazilian society fights the abuse.
Memory rescue
One of the participants of the Guerrilha do Araguaia and arrested by the military regime, deputy José Genoíno (PT-SP) remebered Brazilians who engaged in the fight for the redemocratization, as former senator Teotônio Vilela, the catholic bishop Dom Paulo Evaristo Arns and the jurist Márcio Tomaz Bastos.
According to Genoíno, “it is important to rescue their names, because today it is easy to demand, but in the end of the 60’s, beginning of the 70’s, we went to the newspapers’ offices to report torture methods, and the names of the torturers, and they would say that there was no space for this, because it would disturb the negotiations for the political opening”.
The leader of Psol, Ivan Valente (Psol-SP), said that it was necessary to rescue this memory for the “youth to know who fought for freedom, who gave them democracy earned with a lot of blood, with a lot of idealism from the socialists”.
Valente said that the law personified what the group of political forces allowed to do in that moment. However, now, 30 years past, according to him, “it’s unallowable” that torturers are free and didn’t get any punishment and “that the archives are not opened, that the bones from the Araguaia are still been searched”.
From Reporting
Edition – Rosalva Nunes
Translation - Grupo Solucion-SP Language/Edgar Casadei