of the resulting violation of articles I, IV and XXV of the American Declaration, to his detriment, has been laid to rest. It does, however, find that the acknowledgement is ambiguous with regard to the legal consequences of the failure to investigate, try and punish those responsible for the arbitrary detention, torture and murder of Vladimir Herzog, particularly the alleged violations of the rights of the journalist’s next of kin, thus necessitating a full analysis of the facts and all elements of the merits of the case. V. PROVEN FACTS 53. In application of Article 43(1) of its Rules of Procedure, the Commission will examine the arguments and evidence presented by the parties and any information that is a matter of public knowledge.2 The latter may include laws, decrees and other standards in effect in Brazil at the time of the events of the present case and summaries of the published judicial proceedings into its facts. The IACHR also notes that to establish the facts contained in the next section, it will rely on the findings of the Special Commission on Political Deaths and Disappearances, which appear in the report titled “Right to Memory and the Truth, published by the Special Secretariat on Human Rights of the Office of the President of the Republic in 2007, and the Report of Brazil’s National Truth Commission, published on December 10, 2014. 54. Likewise, in keeping with Article 38 of its Rules of Procedure, 3 and given the scope of the State’s acknowledgment of responsibility, the IACHR shall presume to be true any facts that were alleged and that Brazil did not contest, as long as other evidence does not lead to a different conclusion. A. Context and background 55. As the State has acknowledged, the facts of the present case occurred amid a context of serious human rights violations committed during the civil-military dictatorship that came to power in Brazil following the coup d’état on March 31, 1964,4 and lasted 21 years.5 56. In its judgment in the Case of Gomes Lund et al. v. Brazil, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights observed that “close to 50 thousand persons were detained in the first few months of the dictatorship; around 20 thousand prisoners were subject to torture; there are 354 dead and disappeared persons of the political opposition; 130 expelled from the country; 4,862 persons whose mandates and political rights were ceased, and hundreds of peasants were murdered.”6 More recently, Brazil’s National Truth Commission documented 434 politically motivated deaths and disappearances that occurred in Brazil and abroad.7 57. As the official documents indicate, the serious human rights violations committed during the military dictatorship were part of a policy of repression designed and executed by the State through the 2 Rules of Procedure of the IACHR, Article 43(1). “The Commission shall deliberate on the merits of the case, to which end it shall prepare a report in which it will examine the arguments, the evidence presented by the parties, and the information obtained during hearings and on-site observations. In addition, the Commission may take into account other information that is a matter of public knowledge.” 3 Rules of Procedure of the IACHR, Article 38. “The facts alleged in the petition, the pertinent parts of which have been transmitted to the State in question, shall be presumed to be true if the State has not provided responsive information during the period set by the Commission under the provisions of Article 37 of these Rules of Procedure, as long as other evidence does not lead to a different conclusion.” El referido dispositivo corresponde al Artículo 39 del Reglamento aprobado en 1980 y vigente a la fecha de presentación de la petición, así como al Artículo 39 del Reglamento aprobado en 2000 que estaba vigente en la decisión de admisibilidad. 4 Corte IDH. Caso Gomes Lund y otros (“Guerrilha do Araguaia”) Vs. Brasil. Excepciones Preliminares, Fondo, Reparaciones y Costas. Sentencia de 24 de noviembre de 2010. Serie C No. 219, párr. 2 y 85; Brasil. Presidência da República. Secretaria Especial dos Direitos Humanos. Direito à Memória e à Verdade: Comissão Especial sobre Mortos e Desaparecidos Políticos. Brasília, Secretaria Especial dos Direitos Humanos, 2007, fls. 21; Relatório da Comissão Nacional da Verdade. Volume I. Parte I, “A Comissão Nacional da Verdade”. Capitulo 1 – A criação da Comissão Nacional da Verdade (E) Comissões da verdade: a experiência internacional, fls. 41, párr. 77, del 10 de diciembre de 2014. 5 Relatório da Comissão Nacional da Verdade. Volume I. Parte II, “As estruturas do Estado e as graves violações de direitos humanos”. Capitulo 3 – Contexto histórico das graves violações entre 1946 e 1988 (E) O golpe de 1964, fls. 97, párr. 62, del 10 de diciembre de 2014. 6 Corte IDH. Caso Gomes Lund y otros (“Guerrilha do Araguaia”) Vs. Brasil. Excepciones Preliminares, Fondo, Reparaciones y Costas. Sentencia de 24 de noviembre de 2010. Serie C No. 219, párr. 87. 7 Relatório da Comissão Nacional da Verdade. Volume III – Mortos e desaparecidos políticos. Introdução. fls. 26, del 10 de diciembre de 2014. 9