Residents of Rio de Janeiro’s favelas make unprecedented claim for reparations for persecution under dictatorship

Organization that gathered inhabitants associations had their representatives arrested and was considered subversive in the 1960s | Image: Correio da Manhã Archive/National Archive This article, written by Lucas Pedretti and Marcelo Oliveira and edited by Thiago Domenici, was originally published on the Agência Pública’s website on November 6, 2023. An edited version is republished here through a partnership agreement. On November 6, 2023, the Federation of Favelas Associations in Rio de Janeiro (FAFERJ) and the Public Defender’s Office of the Union (DPU) took unprecedented action with the Amnesty Commission of the Ministry of Human Rights and Citizenship, demanding that the Brazilian state recognize and give compensation for the persecution suffered during the military dictatorship (1964–1985). The request was made based on documents made by the dictatorship’s arms of repression.  The Amnesty Commission was created in 2002, and has now recognized and compensated for over 50,000 cases of individuals who suffered rights violations for exclusively political reasons. Weakened during the Bolsonaro government, the entity was then reconstituted in early 2023 and, from among the proposed changes, established a new rule that associations and collectives can also request amnesty.  In the first request for collective reparations to the Amnesty Commission, made by...