that “Brazil is the only country [in the region] that did not use [criminal] proceedings to
examine the human rights violations that took place during the dictatorship [despite
having] formalized, by Law No. 9,140/95, the State’s acknowledgement of responsibility
for the deaths and disappearances that had been denounced.” This is because, in 1979,
the State enacted an Amnesty Law.
108. The most violent repression of those opposed to the military regime took place in 1964
and from 1968 to 1975. It was during these periods that most politically-motivated
disappearances and deaths officially acknowledged by the State occurred. Moreover, these
periods also coincided with the centralization of investigations and repression operations in
the information centers of the Navy (CENIMAR), the Army (CIE) and the Air Force (CISA), and
the establishment of the Centers for Internal Defense Operations (CODI) and the respective
Internal Operations Department (DOI). 49
109. Faced with the apparent growth of the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB) and the
realization that it would represent a threat to the Government of President Geisel, the security
forces decided to “neutralize” the PCB. In this regard, between 1974 and 1976, journalists of
“Voz Operária” and members of the PCB began to be abducted or detained, tortured and even
killed by State agents. 50
110. Between the end of September and the beginning of October, 1975, the São Paulo
DOI/CODI intensified actions of repression against journalists. 51
111. On October 24, 1975, the day before Vladimir Herzog was deprived of his liberty, 11
journalists were detained: Sergio Gomes da Silva, Marinilda Marchi, Frederico Pessoa da Silva,
Ricardo de Moraes Monteiro, José Pola Galé, Luiz Paulo da Costa, Anthony de Christo, Paulo
Sérgio Markun, Diléa Frate, George Duque Estrada and Rodolfo Konder. 52
112. Dozens of leaders and members of the PCB Central were detained and tortured,
although not all of them were murdered. 53 It is estimated that between 1974 and 1976, at
least 19 people were murdered, including 11 PCB leaders. 54 In total, between March 1974 and
January 1976, 679 members of the PCB, including Vladimir Herzog, were detained under
Operation Radar. 55
B.
Vladimir Herzog
113. Vladimir Herzog was born on May 27, 1937, in the former Yugoslavia (now Croatia)
and arrived in Brazil in 1946, at the age of 9, with his parents, Zigmund and Zora Herzog. He
49
Federal Public Prosecution Service, Crimes da Ditadura Militar: Relatório sobre as atividades de persecução penal
desenvolvidas pelo MPF em matéria de graves violações a DH cometidas por agentes do Estado durante o regime de
exceção, Brasília, 2017, p. 86 (evidence file, folio 14283).
50
Dantas, Audálio. As duas guerras de Vlado Herzog. Rio de Janeiro. Editorial Civilização Brazileira, 2014 (evidence
file, folio 3691); Markun, Paulo. Meu querido Vlado. A história de Vladimir Herzog e do sonho de uma geração. Rio de
Janeiro: Objetiva, 2005, pp. 11-12 (evidence file, folios 8759 to 8769); and Brazil. Office of the President of the
Republic. Special Secretariat for Human Rights. Direito à Memória e à Verdade, Special Commission on Political Deaths
and Disppearances. Brasilia, Special Secretariat for Human Rights, 2007, p. 374 (evidence file, folio 372). Brazil.
Report of the National Truth Commission. December 10, 2014 (evidence file, folio 3273).
Markun, Paulo. Meu querido Vlado. A história de Vladimir Herzog e do sonho de uma geração, pp. 112 and 113
(evidence file, folios 8782 and 8783).
51
52
Dantas, Audálio. As duas guerras de Vlado Herzog (evidence file, folio 3691)
53
Report of the National Truth Commission (evidence file, folio 3273).
54
Report of the National Truth Commission (evidence file, folios 3249 and 3250).
55
Report of the National Truth Commission (evidence file, folio 3281).
24