Herzog case: act at the Cathedral requests pardon from the State and protest against amnesty for Bolsonaro

Fifty years after the journalist’s death Vladimir Herzoghis murder on the premises of the Information Operations Detachment (DOI), of the 2nd Army, was remembered with an inter-religious act “against violence and for peace” in the Sé Cathedral. For the first time a sitting President of the Republic – Geraldo Alckmin – was present at the celebration, as well as the president of the Superior Military Court (STM), minister Maria Elizabeth Guimarães Teixeira Rocha.

The minister asked for forgiveness: “Forgiveness to all who fell and suffered fighting for freedom in Brazil. Forgiveness for the judicial errors and omissions committed during the dictatorship. I ask forgiveness from Vladimir Herzog and his family, Paulo Ribeiro Bastos and his family, Rubens Paiva and Miriam Leitão and their children, José Dirceu, Aldo Arantes, and José Genoino, Paulo Vannuchi, João Vicente Goulart and so many other men and women who suffered from torture, deaths, forced disappearances and exile”.

Alckmin continued, stating: “The memory of Vladimir Herzog remains alive and evokes in each of us the promise to defend the sacred values ​​of life, freedom and human rights. Therefore, I reaffirm here, on behalf of President Lula and myself, our promise, and much more than promise, our unshakable commitment and persevering commitment to the defense of truth, justice and democracy. Long live the alliance of faith, religions, human dignity.”

Upon arrival at the church, the speeches of the most important authorities present showed the impact of the act. “Vladimir Herzog’s death was the result of the extremism of the State which, instead of protecting citizens, persecuted and killed them. Hence, the importance of strengthening Justice, democracy and freedoms”, stated Alckmin.

The STM minister also spoke upon arrival. “This act today means that we are here to honor the memory of Vladimir Herzog, that we cannot allow the dictatorship to return because unfortunately authoritarianism haunts us, even when we imagined that the dictatorship was already consolidated in the country”, he said.

It was 7:05 pm when a choir crossed the crowded cathedral, where a crowd, welcomed with white flowers at the entrance, gathered inside. He stood on the side of the cathedral to begin the celebration 20 minutes later. Sang to Creole Missaby Argentine composer Ariel Ramirez, which paid homage to two German nuns, Elisabeth and Regina Brückner, who secretly brought food to prisoners in a Nazi concentration camp.

Amidst the choir singing, a video showed the names of those killed by the military dictatorship (1964-1985). A minute of silence followed in memory of Vlado and all those killed and disappeared from the period caused by State violence to the present day. The silence was then broken by the chords of the song The Drunkard and the Treadmillby João Bosco and Aldir Blanc, performed by Cida Moreira and the choir.

Promoted by the Vladimir Herzog Institute and the Arns Commission, the event brought the Cardinal Archbishop of São Paulo, d. Odilo Scherer, Rabbi Uri Alam, from Congregação Israelita Beth-El, and Pastor Anita Wright, daughter of one of the religious who participated 50 years ago in the original ecumenical act, Pastor Jaime Wright. The first to speak was Cardinal Scherer.

“50 years ago, a crowd gathered in this same church that was appalled and called for respect, freedom and democracy due to the death of Herzog, brutally tortured and murdered by the military regime due to his fight for democratic freedoms and human rights”, stated the cardinal in his speech to those present, before the national anthem filled the main nave of the cathedral with its chords.

Finally, it was Anita’s turn. Her father, Pastor Wright, was not there by chance in 1975. Her brother – and Anita’s uncle – was the former deputy Paulo Stuart Wright, leader of Ação Popular, from the Catholic left that opposed the regime and was banned by the dictatorship.

Paulo had been kidnapped in 1973 by men from the same DOI of the 2nd Army, who two years later would kill Herzog. And disappeared in the middle of the night and fogat night and in the fog of those years.

Afterwards, the people who participated in the event 50 years ago were honored and who this Saturday also attended the cathedral while the crowd present shouted “no amnesty” before a video with the speech of journalist Audálio Dantas, then president of the Journalists Union, was shown. And retired federal judge Márcio José de Moraes was applauded, who, in 1978, condemned the Union for the journalist’s death.

Afterwards, in a video, actress Fernanda Montenegro read the letter written by Zora Herzog, Vlado’s mother, to judge Moraes. “My son will not return, but his good name will not be tarnished. If his disappearance was not in vain in the history of the country, for me his loss is definitive, my pain has no consolation.”

The policing scheme in Praça da Sé was there to protect the authorities and the people who went to the ecumenical event, in contrast to the 172 agents from the Department of Political and Social Order (Dops) who were there 50 years ago to monitor, control, record and arrest, if necessary, the participants in the celebration at the time, which was attended by the cardinal archbishop d. Paulo Evaristo Arns, Pastor Wright and Rabbi Sobel.

Other speeches followed until it was the turn of Ivo Herzog, the journalist’s son, who was nine years old when his father was murdered. Ivo thanked Alckmin for his presence, with all the symbolism it carried, and for the fact that the acting president was there. By his side was André Herzog, his brother. “Long live peace, long live Justice, long live freedom, long live Vladimir Herzog, long live Brazilian democracy”, he concluded.

In the end, the act became a protest against the amnesty. That was when the former Minister of Justice José Carlos Dias, for the Arns commission, spoke out: “Today we live under the threat of amnesty. Thank God, we are still alive. Human rights cannot be violated.”

Until Minister Elizabeth took the floor with her request for forgiveness. She was applauded. The last speech that day was also the most anticipated: that of acting president Alckmin, a symbol that the Brazilian State dissociated itself from the crime committed in its name in the past. “Long live all those who fought for our freedom. Long live Herzog! Long live democracy! Long live Brazil!”, stated Alckmin. The event ended at 9:40 pm.