Brazilian prosecutors said on Tuesday they would file charges against a retired colonel over the disappearance of five guerrillas during the 1964-1985 military dictatorship, the first such case to be brought against any military officer from that era. Rights group Human Rights Watch said the decision was a "landmark step for accountability in Brazil".
The charges will be brought against Colonel Sebastiao Curio Rodrigues de Moura, who commanded troops that carried out the kidnapping and torture of five members of the Araguaia guerrilla movement in the Amazon that was fighting to impose communism, federal prosecutors said in a statement.
The colonel, then a major and known simply as Curio, was a notorious and ruthless figure from the dictatorship which began after a military coup. He took over the running of the region in the Amazon where his troops were stationed and earned a fortune overseeing artisanal mining.
The prosecutors said Curio's troops kidnapped the five Araguaia combatants in 1974 and tortured them at military bases under his command. The five were never seen again.
"The violent conduct of kidnapping, assaulting and executing opponents of the military government regime, though carried out under the pretext they constituted measures to re-establish national peace, consisted of thoroughly criminal acts, violating human rights and legal order," the prosecutors said.
The charges follow an investigation of the alleged crimes that began in 2009.
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http://news.yahoo.com/brazil-bring-first-charges-over-dictatorship-violence-041316565.html
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Brazil to bring first charges over dictatorship violence (Original post)
Judi Lynn (77,618 posts) 
