U.S. Schools Brazil on Confronting Stain of Torture (Folha Brazil)
"There, an
arm of the state, the Senate, or more precisely, the Senate Select Committee on
Intelligence, worked persistently for the past five years to produce a devastating
6,000 pages on the techniques used by the CIA. … Here, the state refused to
investigate the human rights violations committed during the dictatorship
(1964-1985). … The difference in behavior of the two countries is very likely
due to, among other things, the non-existence south of the equator of
“accountability.” This is a word that has no exact translation into Portuguese
(or Spanish either, one could say)."
Torture is Abhorrent. Period. When
it unfortunately occurs, however, it is important to compare the differing
reactions to it (and other violations of human rights) in Brazil and the United
States.
There, an arm of the state, the Senate, or more precisely,
the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, worked persistently for the past
five years to produce a devastating 6,000 pages on the techniques used by the
CIA after President George W. Bush declared a "war on terrorism"
(2001).
In these almost 30 years that have elapsed, power has passed
from José Sarney, to Fernando Collor
de Mello, to Itamar Franco, Fernando Henrique Cardoso
and to LuizInácio Lula da Silva have all been in power.
None of them lifted a finger.
Only Dilma Rousseff has. And even then, the investigation
was, so to say, outsourced to a National Truth
Commission [NTC], the report of which was
released on Wednesday - December 10.
Luckily,
the NTC is composed of six of the most dignified
figures Brazilian civil society has produced. Yet even if the report has been
adopted by the president, they cannot, individually or collectively, be
considered voices of the Brazilian state.
The difference in behavior of the two countries is very likely
due to, among other things, the non-existence south of the equator of
“accountability.” This is a word that has no exact translation into Portuguese
(or Spanish either, one could say). The phrase that comes closest is “settling
of accounts.”
Even with this loose translation, the difference between the
U.S. and Brazil in terms of how officials behave, both public and private, is
palpable.
There, “accountability” is a duty inscribed in the institutional
DNA. Here it is usually seen as a favor public or private officials offer to
society.
One need only look at the reluctance/omissions of [state oil
company] Petrobras during the
current scandal to see the resistance to accountability. [entails the theft by senior executives of almost $500
million].
There, Senator Dianne Feinstein assumes that torture
committed during the so-called war on terror represents “a stain on our values
and our history.”
Here, members of the NTC were
obliged to publish an article in this Folhato say: “It
is imperative that there is, on the part of the Armed Forces, recognition of its
institutional responsibility.”
After all, as
Barack Obama said about the CIA report, “No nation is perfect.But one of the strengths that makes America exceptional is our willingness to openly
confront our past, face our imperfections, make changes and do better.”
Posted by Worldmeets.US
Confronting the past demands, always in the name of
“accountability,” to make it clear that amnesty only benefits the torturers.
Victims of torture (and other human rights violations) were
all punished - either within the framework of legislation prior to the 1964 coup, or
by (illegitimate) rules enshrined by the dictatorship, or within or on the
margins of both.
Posted by Worldmeets.US
Clovis Rossi is a special correspondent and
member of the Folha editorial board, is a winner of the Maria Moors
Cabot award (USA) and is a member of the Foundation for a New Ibero-American Journalism. His column appears on
Thursdays and Sundays on page 2 and on Saturdays in the World Notebook
section. He is the author, among other works, of Special Envoy: 25 Years
Around the World and What is Journalism?
Luckily,
the 
