Brasília – The Special Commission on Politically-Motivated Deaths and Disappearances, which analyzes requests for indemnity by families of people who died or disappeared during the military dictatorship in Brazil (1964-85), has officially recognized the responsibility of the then-government for the deaths of the following political militants: Gustavo Buarque Schiller, who committed suicide in Rio de Janeiro after being tortured; José Inocencio Barreto, who was killed by police at a sugarmill in Pernambuco; Leopoldo Chiapetti, a member of a revolutionary group who was killed in Rio Grande do Sul; Valdir Salles Sabóia, a militant in the Brazilian Revolutionary Communist Party, killed in Rio de Janeiro; Massafumi Yoshinaga, who also committed suicide after being tortured; Santos Dias, a labor leader assassinated by military police; and Iara Iavelberg, a university professor found dead in an apartment in Salvador, Bahia.

On the other hand, the commission denied requests for indemnity in the cases of the deaths of Carlos Alberto Maciel Cardoso (who was killed by leftist militants), João Luiz Gomes da Silva (a victim in a police shootout who was not a militant) and Venceslau Ramalho Leite (who disappeared but was not involved in any movement against the dictatorship).

According to the president of the commission, Augustino Veit, a total of 85 cases remain to be analyzed. He says they should all be ruled on by April, 2005.

Agencia Brasil
Reporter: Gabriela Guerreiro
Translator: Allen Bennett
12/3/2004

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