Young people linked to political parties were the biggest victims of the dictatorship

Brazil Agency - Most of those killed and disappeared during the Brazilian military dictatorship were young students linked to political organizations who lived in the capital cities. This conclusion is part of an analysis by the Ministry of Human Rights and Citizenship (MDHC) on the final report of the National Truth Commission, which, between 2012 and 2014, investigated cases of serious human rights violations during that period (1964-1985).

Ten years after the National Truth Commission (CNV) exposed some of the crimes, identifying 434 people killed or disappeared due to the actions of state agents, the ministry is taking a new look at the victims of one of the darkest periods in national history.

The average age of the victims identified by the commission is 32,8 years. The majority (77,4%) were between 18 and 44 years old, with almost half, 49,3%, between 18 and 29 years old. Of the 434 victims identified by the commission, 51 were women, and on average, they tended to be younger than the 383 men killed or missing.

Of the total victims, 140 (or 32%) were students—which, for those responsible for the analysis, demonstrates the violent repression of the state apparatus against the student movement and youth. Next come factory workers (57); rural workers (30); journalists (28); teachers (28); military and ex-military personnel (27); administrative and legal service professionals (26); bank employees (20); and professionals in the arts sector (19).

Furthermore, 37% were affiliated with a political party and 4% with trade unions. The Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB) had the highest number of murdered militants: 79 people, or 18,2% of the total deaths reported by the National Truth Commission (CNV). The defunct National Liberation Action (ALN) was the second organization with the most deaths and disappearances (60), followed by the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB), which had 41 members murdered or disappeared.

The statistics compiled from the CNV report are available on the website of the National Observatory of Human Rights (ObservaDH). The data reinforce the argument that violent repression did not occur uniformly over the years and that it is precisely between 1969 and 1978, when Institutional Act No. 5 (AI5) was in effect, that the largest number of victims of repressive action are concentrated.

“Before the 1964 military coup, still during the democratic period, 12 political assassinations were recorded as a result of the actions of the Brazilian State, demonstrating that political persecution already existed, albeit in a less systematic way. Between 1966 and 1968, during the initial phase of the dictatorship, 51 people were murdered while the regime sought to maintain an appearance of legality, consolidating the repressive apparatus,” emphasizes the text presenting the data, attributing part of the increase in cases during this period to clashes between public security forces and militants of the armed struggle against the military dictatorship, in the episode known as the Araguaia Guerrilla (1967/1974).

"The Araguaia Guerrilla War was one of the most emblematic episodes of political repression during the military dictatorship. The conflict took place in the border area between the states of Pará, Maranhão, and present-day Tocantins (then part of Goiás). It was an attempt by the Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB) to organize an armed resistance movement, the path to a so-called protracted people's war, with the formation of guerrilla groups with the support of peasant and working-class groups," the text states.

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In a statement released by the ministry's press office, the ministry's Research and Evidence Dissemination Coordinator, Luciana Félix, emphasized that the data now gathered on the platform will serve as evidence for national human rights policies.

"The survey is presented as a data narrative on ObservaDH and allows for a different perspective on the scope and systematic nature of political repression in Brazil during the military dictatorship. It is important to emphasize that these are not just numbers: they are people whose lives were taken by a regime of exception."

Caio Cateb, general coordinator of support for the Special Commission on Political Deaths and Disappearances, highlighted that the analysis is an important contribution to the cases under investigation.

"The general coordination intends to deepen the analysis with other information so that the data can serve as support tools in searches for missing persons and subsidize the processes of identifying human remains," Cateb said in the note.