Politics of Impunity: Rethinking the Representations of Violence Through the Disciplinary Role of the Brazilian Truth Commission
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Politics of Impunity: Rethinking the Representations of Violence through the Disciplinary Role of the Brazilian Truth Commission A thesis submitted to The University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities 2016 Henrique Tavares Furtado School of Social Sciences Table of Contents Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 12 The Brazilian Exception ............................................................................................................. 14 A Truth Commission against a “Culture of Impunity” ......................................................... 17 Violence, Method, and Representation .................................................................................... 20 Between Deconstruction and Disciplines ................................................................................ 24 Chapter Outline ........................................................................................................................... 25 1 Hostis Humani Generis: a “Genealogy” of the International Fight against Impunity ............ 28 1.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 28 2.2 A Traumatic Beginning: the Twofold Problems of Judgment in the Post-1945 ......... 29 1.2.1 The Nuremberg Trials and the Concept of Enemies of Humankind .................... 33 1.2.2 The Dirty Wars and the Merging of Impunity, Silence, and Forgetting ................ 36 1.3 The Challenge of Reconciliation and its Alternative Visions of Justice ........................ 39 1.3.1 The Minimalist Position: the “Possible” as the Measure of all Things .................. 42 1.3.2 The Maximalist Position: Therapies of Forgiveness and Social Healing ............... 46 1.4 The Retributivist Come-Back: Weaving a “Common Language” of Justice ................ 50 1.4.1 Hybridism: Merging the Local and the Global .......................................................... 51 1.4.2 Holism: Building an Emancipatory Peace Project .................................................... 54 1.4.3 Truth as a Human Right: Sewing the Loose Ends .................................................... 56 1.5 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 60 2 Producing the Post-conflict: The Liberal Humanitarian Representations of Violence ...... 62 2.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 62 2.2 The Two Meanings of the Word Discipline in Foucault................................................. 64 2.3 A New “Discipline” of Justice at the End of History...................................................... 71 2.4 Violence and the Regime of Visibility in the Promise of “Never Again” ..................... 76 2.4.1 Violence as Intentional Violations of Human Rights ............................................... 77 2.4.2 Violence as a Dangerous Cycle of Revenge ............................................................... 80 2 2.4.3 Violence as an Exceptional Occurrence ..................................................................... 84 2.5 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 86 3 On Violence and Resistance: the Historical Production of a Postconflictual Brazil ........... 88 3.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 88 3.2 The Prelude to the Dirty War (1961-1963) ....................................................................... 89 3.3 Leftist Political Violence against the Violence of Normalised Injustices...................... 95 3.4 Disappearances, Remembrance, and the “Continuation” of Resistance .................... 105 3.4.1 The Diaspora (1973) and the Amnesty Movement (1975-1979) .......................... 109 3.4.2 Human Rights, Innocence, and the Uncomfortable Theory of Two Demons .. 112 3.5 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 117 4 On Demons and Dreamers: the Disciplinary Function of Truth-seeking ..........................119 4.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 119 4.2 Facing the Past, the Present, and the Puzzle ................................................................... 121 4.2.1 The National Truth Commission (CNV) ................................................................. 123 4.2.2 A Mishandled Implementation? ................................................................................. 126 4.2.3 The Theory of Archaeological Truth-seeking .......................................................... 129 4.3 The Irreconcilable Limits of a “Common” Language of Justice .................................. 131 4.4 The Reproduction of a Postconflictual Ethos ................................................................ 140 4.3.1 On Demons .................................................................................................................. 141 4.3.2 And Dreamers .............................................................................................................. 144 4.5 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 150 5 Contours of Impunity: Violence, Nomos, and the Problem of Normality ........................154 5.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 154 5.2 Punishment, De-Militarisation, and the Promotion of Human Rights ....................... 155 5.3 Violence at the Limits of a Juridico-Philosophical Discipline ...................................... 162 5.3.1 Why Transitions Are Not as Old as Democracy Itself .......................................... 163 5.3.2 Why Reinstating Normality Brings No End to Violence ....................................... 167 5.4 Impunity and the Politics of a Parsimonious form of Justice....................................... 171 3 5.5 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 177 Conclusion: ......................................................................................................................................179 Different Architectures of Silence ........................................................................................... 180 Cultures and Contours of Violence ........................................................................................ 183 The Politics of Impunity ........................................................................................................... 186 Bibliography .....................................................................................................................................189 Appendix: Illustrations ...................................................................................................................220 Word Count: 87938 4 Table of Figures Figure 1. A wall featuring the inscriptions “to Remember is to Resist”, photograph by the author at the Memorial da Resistência (Resistance Memorial) in Sao Paulo. ............................. 220 Figure 2. The rose of hope in a former torture dungeon, photograph by the author at the Memorial Resistance. ..................................................................................................................... 220 Figure 3. The Continuum of Control, Repression and Resistance Before and Beyond the State of Exception, photograph by the author at the Resistance Memorial. .................................. 221 Figure 4. The State of Exception (in Grey) that Continues into Democracy (in Gold and Green), photograph by the author at the Resistance Memorial. ............................................. 221 Figure 5. The rise and fall of leftist political violence in Brazil (1961-1971), drawing by Daniel Arão Reis and Jorge Ferreira. In: Reis, A and Ferreira, J (1985) Imagens da Revolução: Documentos Políticos das Organizações Clandestinas de Esquerda dos Anos 1961-1971. Rio de Janeiro: Editora Marco Zero, 6 ................................................................................................................................. 222 Figure 6. Subnational and independent commissions listed by the CNV’s report, picture by the author. ....................................................................................................................................... 223 Figure 7. Advert published in all Brazilian newspapers on 24 March, advertising by Secom/PR. In: Folha de São Paulo, (Sunday 24 March), Primeiro Caderno, A15. ................. 224 Figure 8. A map of the unavailable archives of political repression (in white), picture by CNV. In: CNV (2013b) Balanço de Atividades: 1 Ano de Comissão Nacional da Verdade. s.l.: Comissão Nacional da Verdade, 4 ..................................................................................................................... 225 Figure 9. Commemoration of the arrival of the