Mobilização em prol do direito à verdade no Brasil e no Chile: das ditaduras civil-militares às comissões nacionais da verdade

Abstract

This work aims at the social mobilization in favor of the right to truth facing the systematic violations of human rights during the military dictatorships in Brazil and Chile. Through a comparative study of Truth Commissions and an analysis of the transitional justice process in both countries, we seek to discuss the inception and the strategies of social mobilization in each case, remarking their similarities and differences. In this regard, we apply the theory of political process, drawing attention to changes in the structure of political opportunities and the reactions of the mobilized groups regarding them. From the analysis it is possible to identify that in both, Brazil and Chile, the mobilization for human rights and against the dictatorships engage the same actors: human rights advocates and groups of victims and/or their families. In either countries, the mobilizations started while linked to Catholic groups, but, after the re-democratization, they followed different dynamics in each case, reaching the international arena in distinct moments. In Chile, as in Brazil, we could verify the participation in the Truth Commissions of human rights advocates connected to these engaged groups. Even though Chile has published its Truth inform in 1991, and it has developed more of public politics regarding the right to truth, both countries still have to work on the realization of this right and those corresponding to transitional justice and the overcome of the dictatorships’ legacy.