HERZOG CASE REOPENS WOUNDS FROM BRAZIL'S

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BRASILIA 002684

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM PGOV SOCI PINR BR
SUBJECT: HERZOG CASE REOPENS WOUNDS FROM BRAZIL'S
DICTATORSHIP



1. (SBU) SUMMARY. In 1975, during Brazil's military
dictatorship, leftist journalist Vladimir Herzog died under
suspicious circumstances in a government facility in Sao
Paulo. The regime classified his death as a suicide, but
most believed he had been murdered, and Herzog became a case
study for regime abuses. Two weeks ago, Brasilia's daily
paper "Correio Brasiliense" ran a story highlighted by leaked
photos that apparently show a humiliated Herzog in his cell
shortly before his death. If accurate, the photos of his
abuse would support the theory that he was murdered.
Shockingly, the Brazilian Army responded with a statement
legitimizing the measures of the dictatorship and dismissing
the press coverage as a "little attempt at revenge".
President Lula was outraged and the Army Chief quickly issued
a better statement expressing remorse for Herzog's death. In
another twist, it then emerged that the man in at least two
of the three photos was not Herzog at all, but a Canadian
priest who ran afoul of the regime and was briefly detained
in 1975. The legacy of the Herzog case will be a broader
discussion about how to handle the military archives from the
dictatorship period, which are currently sealed for fifty
years. President Lula, mindful of the need for smooth
relations with the military and the importance of moving
forward with his policy agenda, is in no hurry to open the
dictatorship's files. He will leave the next steps to the
Congress, courts, and public opinion. END SUMMARY.

HERZOG'S DEATH AND THE FORGOTTEN FILES
--------------

2. (U) When he was detained by the military regime on 24
October 1975, Vladimir Herzog was a member of the Brazilian
Communist Party and Director of Journalism at "TV Cultura".
He was taken for interrogation at a notorious regime facility
in Sao Paulo, becoming one of about 3,000 political prisoners
held at the time. The next day, photos of his body were
released --he had been hanged from his cell's window (the
window is so low to the ground that Herzog's knees nearly
touch the floor, generating immediate doubts about the
hanging scenario). Although the regime insisted Herzog had
committed suicide, he was widely believed to have been
tortured and murdered. The Sao Paulo rabbi who presided over
his funeral refused to bury Herzog in the cemetery's suicide
section.


3. (U) In 1997, twelve years after the return to civilian
rule. An intelligence officer who, even as late as 1995, was
spying on leftist political parties, had a crisis of
conscience. He gathered up a stack of files from the
military intelligence center and delivered them to the Human
Rights Committee of the federal Chamber of Deputies, where
they gathered dust until this month. The Human Rights
Committee is now reorganizing its archives, and the files
resurfaced. On 17 October 2004, in a splashy six-page
spread, Brasilia's daily newspaper "Correio Brasiliense" ran
three photos leaked by the committee that apparently show a
nude and humiliated Vladimir Herzog, head in hands, sitting
in his jail cell.

MILITARY'S SHOCKING FIRST RESPONSE
--------------

4. (U) The response by the military to the articles was
nothing short of shocking in its defense of the military
dictatorship:

"From the mid-1960s through the early 1970s", reads the
statement issued by the Army's Communications Center, "there
was a subversive movement in Brazil acting on orders from
well-known centers of the International Communist Movement,
planning to topple by force the legally constituted Brazilian
government. At the time the Brazilian Army, responding to
popular demand, put together, along with the other armed
forces and police forces, a pacification force that returned
Brazil to normality. The measures taken by the Legal Forces
were a legitimate response to the violence of those who
refused dialogue and opted for radicalism. ... The Movement
of 1964 (i.e., the military coup),fruit of popular demand,
created the conditions for building a new Brazil in an
environment of peace and security."


5. (U) "The Ministry of Defense has insistently emphasized
that there are no historical documents proving that deaths
occurred during these operations --considering that the
records of the intelligence activities from that time were
destroyed in accordance with legal rulings. ... Media
statements based on third parties who kept personal files are
not the responsibility of the Armed Forces. ... With no
change in our position or our conviction about what happened
in that period, (we) consider this action (i.e. the "Correio"
articles) a little attempt at revenge or to stimulate sterile
discussions about past events, that lead to nothing."

AND THE SECOND STATEMENT SOON AFTER
--------------

6. (SBU) The press, public, and President Lula --who was
briefly jailed during the dictatorship-- were outraged by the
Army's statement. Lula called in DefMin Viegas, who
explained that the statement had been released without his
clearance. Viegas called in Army Chief Gen. Francisco
Albuquerque who quickly issued a second statement reading,
"The Brazilian Army laments the death of journalist Vladimir
Herzog. ... I understand that the way in which this was
handled was not appropriate, and that only the absence of a
deeper internal discussion could allow the Army's
Communication Center to issue a statement so out of touch
with the current historical moment." Viegas pronounced the
case closed. One rumor that was privately confirmed for us
by DefMin Viegas's deputy, Fernando Abreu, was that the first
statement was a boilerplate that the Army had used for years
without incident or review. Abreu labeled it "stupidity".

WHO IS THE MAN IN THE PHOTOS?
--------------

7. (U) The strange twists in the story did not stop. A few
days later, the press and GoB officials examining the three
photos revealed that at least two of them were not of Herzog,
but of Canadian priest Leopold D'Astous, now retired in
Canada, who lived in Brazil at the time and was briefly
arrested for working with youth groups. Herzog's widow
admitted that she may have been hasty in confirming the
identity in the photos, but she believes the third photo may
yet be of her husband.

COMMENT - WHAT TO DO WITH THE FILES?
--------------

8. (SBU) The legacy of the Herzog case is a discussion that
is now getting underway over the fate of the military
archives from the dictatorship period. Most of the official
files were sealed for fifty years by a decree of President
Cardoso. The official records specifically relating to the
"Battle of Araguaia" (the bloody suppression of a communist
movement in the interior of Para state) have, by all
accounts, been completely destroyed, although bootleg copies
made by Army officers involved in the operation have
reportedly surfaced. But many other files, including those
relating to the treatment of political prisoners, still
exist. President Lula is in no hurry to open them, telling
the service chiefs on October 24 that he supports keeping
them sealed and urging the officers to cooperate with the
Human Rights Committee should it hold hearings. Lula is
keenly aware that unsealing the archives would not only
strain his relations with the military, it would also be a
huge distraction from his policy agenda ("This issue is now
with the Human Rights Committee, the administration ought to
concern itself with creating jobs and developing the
country", Lula told the officers). The Chairman of the
Chamber's Human Rights Committee, Mario Heringer (PDT-MG),
has ordered the Committee's archives to be reviewed to see if
there are any more explosive revelations, and he has called
the intelligence officer who gave the files to the committee
in 1997 to testify. Meanwhile, press and pundits are
offering a variety of opinions on how best to handle the
archives in the longer-term.


9. (SBU) While Lula and DefMin Viegas appeared satisfied by
the second official statement issued by Army Chief
Albuquerque, the contretemps over the statements suggests
that there are still some pockets of "old think" in the
officer corps --but there is no reason to view this as an
institutional threat to democratic authority over the
military. Viegas' relations with the service chiefs, already
strained, have only worsened with the Herzog case. And even
beforehand, rumors had Viegas losing his job in Lula's next
cabinet shuffle. While the Army got a black eye from this
affair, Lula seems ready to move on to other issues and leave
the sweeping-up to others.
DANILOVICH