Brazil has had 48 amnesties approved since independence

Brazil has had 48 amnesties approved since the country’s independence, in 1822, according to a survey by Poder360. The 49th forgiveness is under analysis at the National Congress.

On April 14, 2025, the PL leader in the House of Representatives, (RJ), filed the one for the bill that amnesty those of January 8 is voted urgently in the house.

The 1st Amnesty of Brazil Empire was granted to people who gave opinions against independence. The decree was published on September 18, 1822, 11 days after Brazil became independent of Portugal.

This did not prevent other revolts from emerging against the Empire in following years. The 2nd Amnesty was given to those involved in the Confederation of Ecuador in 1825, fighting d. Pedro 1st and the installation of the Republic in Brazil. In 1833, 6 revolts against the Empire were amnesty.

During the Old Republic, the armed revolt against former President Floriano Peixoto, the Federalist Revolution, A, of Chibata, Juazeiro and Xandoca were some who had amnesty those involved.

During the period when Brazil was commanded by Getúlio Vargas, those involved in the 1932 Constitutionalist Revolution and deserting soldiers of World War II benefited from amnesty.

Brazil participated in the international conflict with the FEB (Brazilian Expeditionary Force), at the Battle of Monte Castello, in northern Italy.

After the end of the Estado Novo, one of the most important amnesties was that of December 16, 1961. She included who committed political crimes since 1934 and mainly benefited the opposition parties and sectors of the Armed Forces who tried to prevent João Goulart’s inauguration.

The most famous and last federal amnesty of which one has known is that, which forgiven crimes linked to the military dictatorship, committed by state agents and opponents of the regime, and marked the transition to democracy. The law ended up leaving unpunished who tortured and killed during the period.

The survey was done by Poder360 in the book “Amnesty: Brazilian legislation from 1822 to 1979”at the Senate Agency and the House of Representatives website, on March 17, 2025. This digital newspaper He considered only the federal acts that granted the amnesty directly.

Political instrument

Professor of Law at Ufersa (Rural University of Semiarid) and IDP (Brazilian Institute of Teaching, Development and Research) and researcher of the theme of amnesty in his doctorate, said that, more than a legal tool, amnesty has been used in Brazil as a political instrument.

Peixoto said to Poder360 that the amnesty, according to the, has the sense of extinction of punishment. “It works similarly to pardon, which is a little more restricted because it does not erase all the consequences of crime and the only effect is the freedom of the person.”he said.

Amnesty is broader, according to the teacher, because “Erases the criminal fact”. According to 1988, it is up to the National Congress to propose the Amnesty Law, which will depend on the sanction of the President of the Republic.

“But the amnesty, being a law that deconstructs the criminal fact, ends up serving as a political instrument. This technical explanation, specific to law, cannot explain the uses of amnesty during imperial and republican experience.”said the teacher.

For Peixoto, amnesty has always been a “Political weapon”com “Variety of meanings” for its connection with the circumstances of each historical moment. “It served as much as an instrument of impunity for torturers during the military dictatorship, for military and civilians who tried to promote state blows, but also as an instrument of reparation to political opponents who were persecuted.”he declared.

The teacher states that the Amnesty of 1979, in contemplating torturers, and 1955, conspirators against the possession of Juscelino Kubitschek, functioned more as instruments of impunity than of reparation.

Peixoto states that the definition of the 1988 Constitution is more faithful to the purpose of repairing persecuted people. For him, in the case of the proposal of forgiveness to the convicts of January 8, there is an attempt to mask impunity with the reparation.

“The use of these metaphors is very recurrent in republican history, to try to forget, forgive, but in fact, they cover a certain impunity and do not generate any kind of oblivion or pacification.”these.

For the teacher, amnesty in Brazil never generated forgetfulness or pacification. “It has always been extremely selective and linked to strategic uses of a political group”he declared.