Torture Hunter joins Nobel Peace Prize in last offensive against

Torture Hunter joins Nobel Peace Prize in last offensive against oppressors

BRASÍLIA At 84, the historian Jair Krischke is the longestlived torturer in South America. For five decades he has led a crusade against repressive officials dictatorships that shaped the political and social life of the countries of the continent between 1960 and 1980. Now the Rio Grande do Sul activist lives in anticipation of what may be his latest major attack on a group accused of human rights abuses.

Krischke teamed up with the Argentine activist Adolfo Perez EsquivelNobel Peace Prize to file a lawsuit in the courts of the neighboring country against repressive agents suspected of being connected to the disappearance of the São Paulo journalist Edmur Pericles Camargo, known as “Gauchão”, a PCB fighter, at Ezeiza Airport in June 1971. The ad mentions a diplomat and two Brazilian officials. The lawsuit is from November 2021 and the first court deliberations are considered positive. “Things are going well. Maybe this is the last chance to punish these people. Everyone is old, like me,” said Krischke, Estao.

Historian Jair Krischke at the office of the Justice and Human Rights Movement in Porto Alegre.Historian Jair Krischke at the office of the Justice and Human Rights Movement in Porto Alegre. Photo: Vinícius Valfré/Estadão

It is a fight against impunity. The deepvoiced, heavily accented gaucho is one of the biggest human rights names in the South Cone. Recognition is based on work done at the top Movement for Justice and Human Rights (MJDH). Founded more than 40 years ago, the movement spared countless lives of people persecuted by Latin American dictatorships and denounced countless agents involved Operation Condor a secret agreement between the dictatorships of Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Bolivia and Paraguay with the support of the US government.

Krischke received the report at the MJDH office, located at the Edifício das Missões in Porto Alegre. Ironically, the cut in spending brought the company into a space already occupied by the National Information Service (SNI) during the dictatorship. The window in the main room offers a privileged view of the famous Esquina Demcrática, an iconic place for political and cultural events in the capital of Rio Grande do Sul.

“Things are going well. Maybe this is the last chance to punish these people. Everyone is old like me”

Jair Krischke, historian and founder of the Justice and Human Rights Movement

He estimates that the chances of penalties in Brazil have been zero since then Federal Court of Justice (STF) understood that the amnesty reaches the oppressors and the judiciary does not interpret crimes committed by agents of the state as against humanity. No torturer has been punished in Brazil since the end of the military dictatorship in 1985. Hence the judicial investigations abroad. “The impunity was sanctioned by the STF. Last month, the Uruguayan court ordered the arrest of two military personnel, 44 years after the incident. It’s a crime against humanity, it doesn’t commit itself. But the Brazilian judiciary does not interpret it that way, even though the country is a signatory to international conventions,” he said.

Before the Brazilian came into play with Esquivel, he suffered defeat after 22 years of work. It was 1999 when Krischke first testified before Italian courts and presented information on Operation Condor the historian is one of the greatest experts on the subject. Among the victims are Brazilians with Italian citizenship, which would enable a process to be carried out in the European country. 12 soldiers and one delegate denounced. “The verdict was set for October 2021. In August, the last accused, Colonel Átila Rohrsetzer, died. You can’t imagine how frustrated I was. It was 22 years of work. I recovered from the shock and we started a new thing in Argentina,” he said.

For the activist, Brazil is feeling the effects of the lack of proper transitional justice and the lack of public remembrance politics. These factors, he said, contributed to the rise of Bolsonarianism and do not guarantee security in the subordination of the military to civilian power.

“There was no transition in Brazil. There was a transaction. Tancredo Neves was acceptable to the military in 1961 (when he became Prime Minister with the resignation of Jânio Quadros). It was 1985 again (candidate for the presidency in the indirect election). A big thing is about to happen. Sarney accepted, Collor, FHC and Lula accepted. And Lula accepts it again. They didn’t understand that the military should be subordinate to civilian power,” Krischke said. “The military in Brazil have only cleared the space to date, but they continue to manoeuvre,” he noted.

“To date, the military in Brazil has only cleared the space, but continues to manoeuvre”

Jair Krischke, historian and founder of the Justice and Human Rights Movement

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The activist’s offensive in the public archives and in courts in recent decades is not only an almost hopeless fight for justice. Krischke’s attacks on agents of exceptional regimes tell a story of states and governments using violence against generations.