An event held on the morning of Thursday (26) celebrated the signing of the agreement between the (Attorney General of the Union) and the family of journalist Vladimir Herzog. The event was attended by Ivo Herzog, son of the journalist, and the minister, the Attorney General of the Union.
The agreement provides for compensation in the amount of R $ 3 million to Herzog’s family, murdered by in 1975, and was signed in the course of an action proposed by Clarice Herzog, widow of the journalist. It will also receive a monthly payment in the amount of R $ 34.5 thousand.
Messiah stated the importance of the conclusion of the agreement in the repair of the families of victims of the military dictatorship and said it extends to other families who did not have the opportunity to reach reparation.
“I sign today the understanding and recognition of rights with Vladimir Herzog’s family, but we know how many other families did not have this opportunity. There were many. Many therefore, here we are also symbolizing the struggle of advocacy for the rescue of dignity to the family,” he said.
“It is a process of rheumonization, because it has left us many marks, and one of the most hateful marks is the construction of an eternal mourning process for the dead and missing.”
Ivo Herzog said the signing of the agreement is an important chapter in search of recognition of the military government’s responsibility in the death of his father.
“The process of search for justice began 50 years ago, when my mother repelled the version about the death of my father that the Brazilian state was trying to impose at that time,” he said.
Journalist Vladimir Herzog was murdered in 1975 at the DOI -Codi headquarters (Information Operations Detachment – Internal Defense Operations Center) in São Paulo. The version presented by the regime at the time stated that Herzog had taken his own life in jail. The family has always contested the statement. The journalist would turn 88 on Friday (27).
Ivo also stressed how the signing of the agreement shows a change in the way Brazil treats the violence it perpetrates. “This apology is not just symbolic. It is an act that makes us believe that the current Brazilian state does not think as at that time,” he says.
Messiah described the celebration as the most important day of all his management. He also stated that signing of the agreement symbolizes a change of attitude of the Brazilian institutions.
“We are talking about a very profound change, a something state that perpetuated state violence, recognized by the Judiciary, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. We are once again apologizing for all barbarity. There is also a renewal of an ethical-political commitment of all of us, to keep the permanent struggle for democracy lit.” he said.
