RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The household of a Brazilian journalist who was tortured and killed through the nation’s army dictatorship on Wednesday welcomed a courtroom determination to grant a month-to-month stipend to his widow — marking a gesture of reparation in a nation nonetheless haunted by that two-decade interval.
The federal courtroom in Brazil ’s capital Brasilia ordered the federal government to pay simply over 34,000 reais (some $6,000) per 30 days to Clarice Herzog, 83, for the remainder of her life. It is a part of a broader push that is underway for reconciliation with the nation’s previous.
Clarice’s lifelong combat for justice echoes that of Eunice Paiva, the spouse of leftist congressman Rubens Paiva, likewise killed by the army regime. That story is informed within the film “I am Nonetheless Right here,” which is up for 3 Academy awards — together with Finest Image and Finest Actress — and has been a field workplace success.
Trusted information and each day delights, proper in your inbox
See for your self — The Yodel is the go-to supply for each day information, leisure and feel-good tales.
Final month, Brazilian notaries started issuing a whole lot of corrected loss of life certificates for victims of the dictatorship, which state that the deaths weren’t pure however violent and attributable to the state, in keeping with native media.
The Vladimir Herzog Institute and the Herzog household celebrated the choice, which they referred to as “an essential milestone” in a press release.
Herzog was killed almost 50 years in the past on Oct. 25, 1975. As a result of plaintiff’s age and unwell well being, the choice issued on Jan. 31 is efficient instantly.
On the day of his loss of life, Herzog voluntarily introduced himself to a army barracks after being summoned. The army tried to border his loss of life as a suicide and issued {a photograph} of him hanging by the neck from a rope; the gambit backfired, and the picture was remodeled into an iconic show of the regime’s brutality.
The distinguished journalist’s homicide and the debunked story of his suicide sparked what is taken into account one of many first mass protests concentrating on the army regime (1964-1985).
In 2018, the Inter-American Courtroom of Human Rights issued a ruling condemning the Brazilian state for Herzog’s torture and homicide, and for the failure to research and maintain army dictatorship brokers accountable.
That ruling ordered Brazil to pay financial compensation to Clarice Herzog. The ministry for human rights and citizenship famous in a press release that she has already obtained 100,000 reais, an quantity that Rogerio Sottili, the chief director of the Vladimir Herzog Institute, referred to as “symbolic.”
“The instance that continues to be is that you are able to do something and nothing will occur to you,” Sottilli added.
In January, the Herzog household filed a request for the satisfactory monetary compensation, Sottili mentioned.
Nonetheless, the choice to grant Herzog’s spouse a month-to-month cost “goes within the path of Brazil making an attempt to do what it has by no means carried out, which is to confront the state’s previous violence,” mentioned Sottili in a cellphone name from Sao Paulo.
The federal government can enchantment. The ministry’s assertion didn’t say whether or not it intends to, however famous the beforehand paid quantity and that the federal government’s amnesty fee already issued a proper apology to Clarice for the persecution she suffered when combating for justice.
Not like international locations like Argentina and Chile, which established fact commissions and prosecuted former dictators and their henchmen, Brazil’s transition again to democracy was marked by a sweeping amnesty to army officers.
