Facing the past: archives, torturers and the legacies of dictatorship.

By many indications, Brazil's return to democratic rule has been a rough roller coaster ride. Spiraling inflation in the late 1980s and early 1990s dovetailed with the impeachment of Fernando Collor, the country's first directly elected president since 1960. Two-term President Fernando Henrique Cardoso (1995-2002) held down price increases and stepped up the integration of the Brazilian economy into the global market, but his popular support waned during his final years in office. In late 2002, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva came to the presidency with widespread backing from the popular classes and the enthusiastic expectations of his leftwing political base. His administration, however, has become embroiled in controversy about the lingering legacy of the military regime. A national debate has emerged about whether the excesses of the military dictatorship merit further investigation or should be laid to rest. The outcome may be a test of the extent to which democracy is firmly rooted in Brazil.

Solidarity in the States

Few people realize that the concerted campaigns in the United States to defend human rights in Latin America over the last three decades grew in large part out of a modest effort initiated in the late 1960s by Brazilians seeking international allies to inform the world of the deteriorating situation in their country after the military coup of April 1, 1964. Instrumental in this effort was a meeting between a small group of Brazilian exiles and William Wipfler, then assistant director of the Latin American Department of the National Council of Churches.

In December 1969, Jether Pereira Ramalho, a lay leader in the Brazilian Congregationalist Church, and his wife, Lucília, traveled to New York. Upon arrival, they went directly to meet Wipfler at ah ...