This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

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