Amnesty and the Limits of Transitional Justice in Brazil: The Case of Expelled Low-Ranking Soldiers, 1964–2014

Abstract

Abstract This article shows the continuities of the military dictatorship and the limits of transitional justice in Brazil, arguing that the violations the military regime inflicted on certain groups persisted over three decades after democratization. Between 1964 and 1985 the military officers who took power strived to eliminate opposition to their rule from all sectors of society. Inside the armed forces, they expelled over 6,500 officers and soldiers from their ranks after accusing them of subversion. Between 1979 and 2014 the state created policies to start a democratic transition and address the civil and human rights violations perpetrated during military rule. It offered amnesty and reparations to individuals who had their political rights stripped from them after their names were published in Institutional Acts, legal instruments created by the military government to justify the political persecution of its opponents. Yet, transitional justice policies failed to address different mechanisms the dictatorship used to eliminate opposition, such as Air Force Decree 1,104, which determined that soldiers would be hired on four-year contracts. Masquerading it as a tool to regulate the organization of the Air Force, military officers used Decree 1,104 to expel soldiers whom the regime saw as politically subversives. This article shows how the transitional justice policies created in Brazil were insufficient to deal with the multiple ways the dictatorship punished its political opponents.