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Human Rights in Latin America Fall 2009 Issue 10 DivisaderoHuman Rights in Latin America Declassifying the Memory and Human Life Under A Coup Student Reections Dictatorship: Memory Rights 0n the SOA Vigil/ and justice in Brazil Professor Susana Kaiser Activist Lisa Sullivan Protest Professor Cecilia Santos explores the signicance provides insight into the 2009 USF students reect on discusses the aftermath of of memory in terms of Honduran coup and the their experience in Fort the 1964 -1985 Brazilian human rights initiatives. reality of life in Honduras Benning, Georgia. dictatorship. Page 4-5 today. Page 11 Pages 2-3 Page 10 Dear Divisadero Readers, gion s history of military dictator- Editorial oard ships and struggle for social jus- Sometimes the power of tice. Whether on a global, national, Jasmine Bernal university students can be under- or local scale, human rights have Junior mined, but our eagerness to learn become an important issue of our Biology and try to make a difference in the time. world can go a long way. T he key Karina Castro I n this issue, we address lies in our effort to organi e and Junior the aftermath of the dictatorship unite for a cause we believe in. International and Latin American Studies in B ra il as well as the collective P erhaps it is a reality of our past memory of torture in Argentina. Fatima Duran and present, as well as the desire We also examine the 200 H ondu- Sophomore to take our future in a particular di- Media and Latin American Studies ras coup and the abuses committed rection, that encourages us to fight by the de facto government cur- for human rights. owever, despite Jamie Lazaro rently in power. Furthermore, on Senior the amount of attention human a local scale, we seek to highlight International and Latin American Studies rights have received recently, there the work of USF s School of the is still a need for further activism Violeta Velazquez Americas Watch ( S AW chapter, and action on our part as United Senior particularly their annual trip to Fort States citi ens. f we are to truly International and Latin American Studies B enning, eorgia for a vigil and uphold democracy, we must de- protest of the Western emisphere Elisabeth Jay Friedman mand that our government respect I nstitute for Security Cooperation, Department Chair international human rights norms formerly known as the School of Latin American Studies and pressure other governments to the Americas. observe the Universal eclaration Marissa Litman T his semester we would of uman ights. Program Assistant like to welcome two new editors to I n this edition, we explore Latin American Studies Divisadero: V ioleta ela q ue and the issue of human rights in atin Fatima D uran. We would also like Mary Zweifel America. ften a complex mat- to thank faculty and students who Program Assistant ter, human rights are widely linked International Studies contributed to this edition. with atin America given the re- Latin American Studies Department, USF Declassifying the Dictatorship: Memory and Justice in Brazil An Interview with Professor Cecilia Santos by Violeta Velazquez laws, in some cases revoking them, because they now consider Cecilia Santos is an Associate Professor of that these laws had granted auto-amnesty. Advocates of a Sociology and Latin American Studies as limited interpretation of the ra ilian amnesty law also point well as Chair of the Sociology Department. out that torture is a crime against humanity . T herefore, it can- In the following interview with D ivisadero not be an object of amnesty. Another important debate concerns staff writer, Violeta Velazquez, she discuss- citizens’ access to classified information on the practices of the es her literary work analyzing the history, memory, and justice of the 1964-1985 repressive state during the dictatorship. A series of laws have dictatorship in Brazil. been enacted since the early 9 9 0s to regulate the terms and length of time for declassifying governmental documents. All of VV: What is your new book, titled these laws have allowed the government to extend the deadline Desarquivando a Ditadura: Memória for declassifying top secret documents indefinitely. This has e Justiça no Brasil [Declassifying the Dictatorship: Memory provoked reactions from the families of the disappeared and and Justice in Brazil] about? former political prisoners. When the current president ui n cio ula da Silva took CS t examines the memory of the re- office, Brazilians had many expectations cent violent past, during the ra ilian and thought that he would establish a differ- dictatorship, which took place from ent government, and in many ways he did. 1 9 6 4 until 9 8 5 . uring this period, H owever, with respect to this struggle over the military government suspended memory and justice he didn t revoke the political rights and established an previous law on the classification of top se- authoritarian regime. T here was state cret documents. n fact, according to some repression, persecution, kidnapping, critics, resident ula proposed to Congress torture, and assassinations commit- a new law that made it even more difficult ted by police and military officers. to declassify documents regarding the pe- The first volume focuses on different riod of the dictatorship. T his is a continuing interpretations of the past. T his volume issue that has not yet been solved. is divided into two parts. The first part includes memories and histories of VV: How did you become involved with movements of resistance. T his covers this project? not only clandestine organi ations, but also the repression suffered by CS n the last four years, have been con- both women and men. T he second part ducting research on the use of international of the first volume discusses the institutional apparatus of the human rights law by non-governmental organi ations N G O ’ s state, as well as how the state organi ed and institutionali ed in ra il to pressure the state to promote the protection of hu- political repression. T he second volume is dedicated to current man rights in the country. More specifically, I look at the use of debates on justice, memory and democracy. the nter-American System of uman ights, which is com- posed of the nter-American Commission of uman ights and VV: What are some of the current debates in Brazil con- the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Any person can file cerning human rights in the context of the dictatorship? a complaint. A victim, G O ´ s, or state parties of the American Convention on Human Rights can file a complaint against a CS ne of the major debates is the scope of the amnesty law, given state before the nter-American Commission of uman enacted in 9 7 9 , still in the context of the military regime and R ights. Contrary to the Court, the decisions adopted by the during the transition to a democratic regime. any countries I nter-American Commission are not judicial decisions and are in atin America passed amnesty laws right after their dirty not binding. ut they may have an important political impact. wars. T hese laws were intended to pardon the political crimes M ost of the complaints against ra il are initiated by human committed by the political dissidents. T he ra ilian amnesty rights G O ´ s. T hese G O ´ s use the law not only to seek repa- law is an object of debate because it included one sentence say- rations for the victims, but also to promote local changes, to ing that connected crimes to political crimes would also be pressure the state to enforce an existing legislation, or to create an object of amnesty. T he military and many civilians interpret- new laws and public policy that can promote the protection of ed connected crimes as an expression that would allow the human rights in the country. T his is what call transnational extension of amnesty to the agents of the state who committed legal activism, that is, the use of international human rights illegal imprisonment, extra judicial executions, torture, and so law for promoting political, legal, and social change. on. T he issue of torture in particular has been an object of heat- As part of this research, selected a few case stud- ed debates in ra il. any countries have revised their amnesty ies for analysis. ne of them refers to the Araguaia uerilla 2 Divisadero Declassifying the Dictatorship: Memory and Justice in Brazil M ovement. T his movement took place in the late 0 s and on the dictatorship. We do not know if the documents still exist, early 0 s in the orth of ra il. t included over 9 activists but that is the object of the legal battle, to get information, and and was organi ed by the then clandestine Communist arty of that is one of the cases examine in my chapter. B ra il P Cdo ) . T he guerrillas were massacred by the ra il- ian Army. ost of the activists were killed and had their bodies VV: How does this book contribute to the scholarly litera- disappeared by the government. n the early 9 8 0 s, 22 family ture on the dictatorship in Brazil? members of the disappeared initiated a legal battle against the B ra ilian state to receive information on the circumstances of CS T his project intends to make both theoretical and political the death of the activists who had disappeared in the Araguaia contributions to the debates on memory and justice in ra il. G uerrilla.
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