Almost thirty years after the end of Brazil's military dictatorship, the Comissao Nacional da Verdade [National Truth Commission] today released its long awaited report on human rights violations by the security forces between 1964 and 1985. The report, which took two-and-a-half years to complete and totals over 1000 pages, represents the first formal attempt by Brazil as a nation to record its repressive past and provide a detailed accounting of the system of repression, of the victims of human rights violations, as well as the identities of those who committed those crimes.

In contrast to the U.S. Senate report on torture released yesterday in Washington which redacted even the pseudonyms of CIA personnel who engaged in torture, the Brazilian report actually identifies over 375 perpetrators of human rights crimes by name.

The report contains detailed chapters on the structure and methods of the repression during the military era, including targeted violence against women and children. The commission identified over 400 individuals killed by the military, many of them "disappeared" as the military sought to hide its abuses. During its investigation, the Commission located and identified the remains of 33 of the disappeared; some 200 other victims remain missing.

The report also sheds significant light on Brazil's role in the cross-border regional repression known as Operation Condor. In a chapter titled "International Connections: From Repressive Alliances in the Southern Cone to Operation Condor," the Commission report details Brazil's military ties to the coup in Chile, and support for the Pinochet regime, as well as identifies Argentine citizens captured and killed in Brazil as part of a Condor collaboration between the Southern Cone military regimes.

This report opens a Pandora's box of historical and legal accountability for Brazilians. For now it provides a verdict of history, but eventually the evidence compiled by the commission's investigation could lead to a judicial accounting. "The Truth Commission's final report is a major step for human rights in Brazil," according to Brown University scholar, James Green, "and the pursuit of justice for the victims of the state's terror."