RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, lionized at home and abroad as a transnational leader steering his nation into regional leadership, enters the new year with a political crisis over a planned public probe into human-rights abuses under the old military regime.
The source of the crisis is key members of his own government and the military that, despite democratization after the end of the dictatorships of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, see the investigation as an affront to the reputation of the generals and soldiers alike.
At issue is a "truth commission" that, if all goes to plan, will look in shameful detail at the excesses committed by the military while it held sway from 1964 to 1985.
Newspapers O Globo and O Estado de Sao Paulo reported that Defense Minister Nelson Jobim and commanders of the air force, army and navy presented their resignations to Lula soon after he unveiled a draft bill for the creation of the commission. The president rejected the resignations outright, the newspapers said, indicating the crisis began soon afterwards with no apparent end in sight.
Analysts said Lula now faces a tough test because, although he has promised to review the text of the draft bill, the truth about the planned commission is out and backtracking on the plan will damage him more than the military.
The planned National Commission on the Truth is a part of Lula's Human Rights National Program and is central to his pledge to identify those who were responsible for the killing of 400 political activists and torture of about 20,000 people during the 19-year military dictatorship.
The bill was drafted by Human Rights Minister Paulo Vannuchi, who said the proposed legislation was meant "to rescue information of all that happened during the long period of dictatorial repression in recent Brazilian history," MercoPress reported.
Vannuchi said those held responsible for the killings and torture could face trial if the Supreme Federal Tribunal accepts Lula's argument that they should not be exempt from prosecution under a 1979 amnesty law, itself suspect as it was approved under the last military president, Gen. Joao Figueiredo.
The generals who threatened to resign, as well as Jobim, a prominent jurist, argue the initiative is vengeful and cite what they consider as an imbalance in the argument -- exclusion from the planned investigation of left-wing armed groups also implicated in human-rights abuses against members of the ruling military.
The victims' groups want the truth commission to be empowered to investigate crimes, including the hiding or destroying of archives, to recommend criminal cases against suspects, and to send documents to courts.
