Amnesty International, the global organization championing human rights, was silent about the military dictatorship in Brazil during its beginning years. Starting in 1966 and 1967 with the rise of Brazilian opposition, the organization issued a report including Brazilian detainees. By 1970, Brazil (and Greece) became the leading symbols of human rights violations. Click here to read more: Amnesty International Report 1967 (page 9) and Amnesty International Report 1971.
In addition, mainstream weeklies and news allies of national and international impact joined progressive religious and secular magazines. Usually a bastion of conservative views, the Catholic Church became the sole institution organized enough and strong enough to voice criticism of the regime. Soon religious leaders inside and outside Brazil were denouncing the dictatorship’s use of torture. Read more: article by William Wipfler, article by Thomas Quigley, and article by Robert Bolton.
Other leaders joined the church in denouncing the regime: Read Marcio Moreira Alves’ interview, an article in the Washington Post, a Foreign Affairs article, Terror in Brazil: The Laws of Repression, Terror in Brazil: A Dossier, and the New York Times book review for Terror in Brazil.
One of the most outspoken critics of the military regime was Ralph Della Cava. As a result of an article he wrote in Commonweal denouncing torture, former Ambassador Lincoln Gordon also joined the discussion. Gordon, at the time president of Johns Hopkins University, criticized Della Cava’s article and his characterization of Gordon’s role in the regime’s takeover. In turn, Della Cava responded to Gordon’s arguments and further pointed out the US’ complicity in the regime’s rise to power. To read more about this exchange, click here for Della Cava’s article on torture in Brazil and here for Gordon and Della Cava’s responses in Commonweal.
The international outrage at reports of torture created a diplomatic crisis between the U.S. and Brazilian governments. Between the American press, Amnesty International, and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IAHRC), the U.S. government could no longer remain closely connected to a Brazilian regime that so cruelly tortured its citizens without reflecting negatively on U.S. foreign policy. Click here to read a report to U.S. Congress on “Repression of Civil Liberties and Human Rights in Brazil since the Revolution of 1964.”
Biographies:
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- William Wipfler
- Ralph Della Cava
- Edward Kennedy