MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil: Rousseff granted amnesty and awarded reparations

In the 1970s, Rousseff spent three years in detention under the military dictatorship

Former President Dilma Rousseff has been found eligible by Brazil’s Amnesty Commission, which also issued an apology for her persecution and torture during the military dictatorship (1964–1985). She will receive R$ 100,000 (US$ 17,700) in reparations for her dismissal from the Economics and Statistics Foundation (FEE) in Rio Grande do Sul state in 1977.

“This commission, by the powers vested in it, grants you, Brazilian citizen [Dilma Vana Rousseff], political amnesty and on behalf of the Brazilian state apologizes for all the atrocities which the dictatorial state caused you as well as your family, your comrades-in-arms, and finally the whole Brazilian society,” said the commission’s chair, retired Federal Prosecutor Ana Maria Oliveira upon announcing the decision in Rousseff's case. The Ministry of Human Rights' agency reviews claims from politically persecuted citizens between 1946 and 1988.

“We would also like to thank you for your tireless fight for Brazilian democracy, your tireless fight for the Brazilian people,” added Oliveira during a ceremony Rousseff was unable to attend owing to previous engagements in China as President of the BRICS' New Development Bank (NDB)

Rousseff was arrested at the age of 22 in 1970 for opposing the military government, enduring nearly three years of detention and repeated interrogations at military facilities in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Minas Gerais, to prolong her imprisonment, according to Commission case rapporteur Rodrigo Lentz.

She later described the lasting impact of torture beyond physical scars. Her amnesty request, first filed in 2002, was suspended while she held government positions, then denied in 2022 before she successfully appealed. “I don’t think any of us can explain the after-effects; we’re always going to be different,” she said, adding that she was able to withstand prison better physically because she was younger, but the medium-term impact was greater.