Vladimir Herzog, a journalist and dissident who was killed during Brazil’s dictatorship, was the subject of an agreement that the Brazilian government has acknowledged as a responsible party.
Herzog’s family received a statement of liability and a compensation package worth 3 million Brazilian reais, or $544, 800, on Thursday, according to the government.
Herzog’s widow, Clarice Herzog, received retroactive payments of a pension she should have received following her husband’s passing in the amount of about $6, 000 per month, according to the settlement.
Herzog’s son, Ivo Herzog, applauded the government’s choice to accept responsibility in a statement released by The Associated Press news agency.
Ivo remarked that Ivo’s apology is not just symbolic. The state’s “act” makes us think that the current Brazilian state doesn’t think like the state it was then.
He added that the story of his family included those who lost loved ones during the dictatorship between 1964 and 1985, in addition to the hundreds, if not thousands, of others.
He explained that it has taken decades to win the government over its wrongdoing.
Ivo, who currently runs the Vladimir Herzog Institute, a human rights organization named after his father, said, “This has been a struggle not only of the Herzog family, but also of all the families of the murdered and disappeared.”
Vladimir Herzog passed away in 1975, just before the end of the dictatorship. He was 38 years old.
A decade prior, the Brazilian army oversaw the uprising of left-wing President Joao Goulart and established a government known for its human rights violations, including the arbitrary detention and torture of dissidents, students, politicians, indigenous people, and anyone else deemed a threat.
Many of them fled to exile. Some people died or vanished without a trace while others did not. Around 500 people die, according to estimates, though some experts place that figure at 10,000 or higher.
Herzog was a well-known journalist, and he also fled to exile in the United Kingdom at first. However, he returned to Brazil to work for TV Cultura, a public television station, as a news editor. Herzog was summoned by authorities to an army barrack on October 24, 1975, for that role.
Military sources there indicated that he would be asked to provide details about his political connections. Herzog stepped aside to make his statement. But he never came back.
Herzog’s death was later described as a suicide and the military released a staged photo of his body hanging from a rope.
However, a rabbi who later examined Herzog’s body discovered signs of torture. The staged photograph became a representation of the Brazilian dictatorship’s abuses as Herzog’s funeral, which was conducted with full religious rites.
Ivo, his son, was only nine years old at the time. He spoke to Al Jazeera earlier this year about the release of a movie titled I’m Still Here, which highlighted another murder committed by the dictatorship: that of politician Rubens Paiva.
Paiva, like Herzog, voluntarily abstained from service to testify at the request of military officials, never to be seen again. His body was never discovered. Paiva’s family was waiting for a death certificate that acknowledged the military’s contribution to his death, which took decades.
Ivo praised the film I’m Still Here for raising awareness of the injustices of the dictatorship. He added that he hoped the Brazilian government would acknowledge the harm that it had caused to his family and amend the 1979 Amnesty Law, which forbade the prosecution of numerous military officials.
What are they anticipating? For everyone to pass away in the period”? Herzog addressed Eleonore Hughes, a journalist. Brazil’s “political system of forgetfulness” is prevalent, and little of it has changed.
The Herzog family’s agreement was framed as a positive step by Brazil’s federal legal counsellor, Jorge Messias, on Thursday.
He claimed, “We are witnessing something unheard of: The Brazilian state officially honors Vladimir Herzog’s memory.”
He also compared Brazilian politics’ current state to that of the coup d’etat of 1964. After their candidate was defeated in the 2022 election, thousands of far-rightist President Jair Bolsonaro supporters stormed government buildings in Brazil’s capital on January 8, 2023.
Left-wing leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the country’s current president, has compared it to a coup. Bolsonaro testified in court this month about the accusations that he was a part of the election results’ overturning effort.
