Family receives new death certificate of journalist killed during Brazilian dictatorship

03/16/2013 - 12h01

The family of Vladimir Herzog received a corrected version of his death certificate. He died in 1975, during the military dictatorship in Brazil.

The certificate, corrected after a court order, now says his death occurred due to "injuries and maltreatment suffered during interrogation at the facilities of the 2nd Army (DOI-Codi)".

The new certificate officially replaces the version that stated Herzog suffered "mechanical suffocation by choking" - which was made to indicate he committed suicide.

"It's a way of recovering the stories of people that made our country more democratic. Our family had been humiliated by a deceiving document," says Ivo, Vladimir Herzog's son.

Herzog went to the DOI-Codi willingly after he was sought by repression agents at his house and at TV Cultura, where he worked as a director of journalism. He was tortured and beaten to death.

This is the second case of a correction of a death certificate produced during the dictatorship. In 2012, courts ordered the death certificate of João Batista Drumond to be changed.

According to it, he died due to a "head injury on 9 de Julho avenue." It was changed to death "due to physical torture at the facilities of DOI-Codi in the 2nd Army in São Paulo." Drumond was a communist activist and died in 1976.

Translated by THOMAS MUELLO