Latest news with #dictatorship
Al Jazeera
2 days ago
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Brazil announces compensation for dictatorship victim Vladimir Herzog
The government of Brazil has announced an agreement to acknowledge its responsibility in the murder of Vladimir Herzog, a journalist and dissident who was killed during the country's dictatorship period. On Thursday, the government agreed to a statement of liability and a compensation package for Herzog's family, amounting to 3 million Brazilian reais, or $544,800. The settlement also affirmed the decision of a federal court earlier this year to grant Herzog's widow, Clarice Herzog, retroactive payments of a pension she should have received after her husband's death, amounting to about $6,000 per month. In a statement recorded by The Associated Press news agency, Herzog's son, Ivo Herzog, applauded the government's decision to accept responsibility. 'This apology is not merely symbolic,' Ivo said. 'It is an act by the state that makes us believe the current Brazilian state doesn't think like the Brazilian state of that time.' He added that his family's story represented hundreds, if not thousands, of others who had their loved ones killed during the dictatorship period from 1964 to 1985. Having the government acknowledge its wrongdoing, he explained, has been a decades-long fight. 'This has been a struggle not only of the Herzog family, but of all the families of the murdered and disappeared,' said Ivo, who now runs a human rights nonprofit named for his father, the Vladimir Herzog Institute. Vladimir Herzog was 38 years old at the time of his death in 1975, midway through the dictatorship period. The Brazilian army had overthrown left-wing President Joao Goulart a decade earlier and installed a government that became known for human rights abuses, including the arbitrary arrest and torture of dissidents, students, politicians, Indigenous people and anyone else deemed to be a threat. Many went into exile. Some were killed or simply disappeared without a trace. The number of deaths is estimated to be about 500, though some experts place that figure at 10,000 or higher. Herzog was a prominent journalist, and initially, he too went into exile in the United Kingdom. But he returned to Brazil to serve as the news editor for a public television station, TV Cultura. It was in that role that, on October 24, 1975, Herzog was summoned by authorities to an army barrack. There, military officials indicated he would be asked to testify about his political connections. Herzog voluntarily left to offer his statement. But he never returned home. The military later claimed Herzog's death was a suicide, and it released a staged photo of his body hanging from a rope. But a rabbi who later examined Herzog's body found signs of torture. Herzog's funeral, conducted with full religious rites, turned into a moment of reckoning for the Brazilian dictatorship, and the staged photograph became a symbol of its abuses. His son Ivo was only nine years old at the time. Earlier this year, he spoke to Al Jazeera about the release of a film called I'm Still Here that highlighted another murder committed under the dictatorship: that of Rubens Paiva, a politician. Like Herzog, Paiva voluntarily left to give testimony at the request of military officials and was never seen alive again. His body was never found. It took decades for Paiva's family to receive a death certificate that acknowledged the military's role in his death. Ivo praised the film I'm Still Here for raising awareness about the injustices of the dictatorship. He also told Al Jazeera that he hoped for the Brazilian government to acknowledge the harm it had done to his family and to amend the 1979 Amnesty Law that shielded many military officials from facing accountability. 'What are they waiting for? For everyone connected to that period to die?' Herzog told journalist Eleonore Hughes. 'Brazil has a politics of forgetfulness, and we have evolved very, very little.' On Thursday, Jorge Messias, Brazil's federal legal counsellor, framed the agreement with the Herzog family as a step forward. 'Today, we are witnessing something unprecedented: The Brazilian state formally honouring the memory of Vladimir Herzog,' he said. He also compared the 1964 coup d'etat with the modern circumstances of Brazilian politics. On January 8, 2023, thousands of supporters of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro stormed government buildings in Brazil's capital, after the 2022 election saw their candidate defeated. The current president, left-wing leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, has compared that incident to a coup. Bolsonaro testified this month in court over charges he helped orchestrate an effort to overturn the election result. 'In the 2022 election, we stood at a crossroads: Either to reaffirm democracy or move toward the closure of the Brazilian state, with all the horrors we lived through for 21 years,' Messias said, referencing the horrors of the dictatorship.
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Opinion: Iran's brutal regime has now run out of options
The clerical-military dictatorship which has ruled Iran for almost 50 years has run out of options. President Trump's daring raid on Iran's nuclear facilities further undermines a regime which is already reeling from multiple humiliations at home and abroad. For the medieval mullahs and their brutal generals, there is no good way forward, no credible response that doesn't involve more humiliation amounting to capitulation. The end of days beckons for them. The US raid is just one more nail in the coffin. A regime which only recently thought it was on track to dominate the Middle East with its toxic brew of Islamism and anti-Semitism is now reeling in retreat on every front. The terrorist proxies which it fostered and financed at huge expense and through which it spread fear and terror, are impotent. Hamas struggles to survive, in no state to threaten anyone bar defenceless Palestinians who dare to challenge its fading power. Hezbollah, a far more formidable operation dominating southern Lebanon and once seen as the tip of the spear should Israel ever attack Iran, has been decapitated. It speaks volumes that Hezbollah has not lifted a finger to help its paymasters even as Israel pummels Iran from the skies. Iran's great ally, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad , has been deposed and languishes in exile in Moscow (where some of the Iranian regime may soon join him). Iran used Syria as a base from which its Quds Force, the foreign legion arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, could stir up all manner of mayhem across the region. Syria was also the conduit through which it channelled arms and money to its proxies, but it is now in the hands of forces hostile to the Iranian regime. As if all that was not bad enough, there came the greatest humiliation of all: Iran lost control of its skies to the Israeli air force. As a result, Israel is able to strike with impunity. The Iranian air force has been neutralised, many of the country's military commanders have been killed – as have key nuclear scientists – and its missile stocks and launchers are being ruthlessly degraded by Israeli air power. Israel's dominance of Iranian airspace paved the way for the US attack on the nuclear facilities. Its B-2 stealth bombers were able to drop their bunker-buster bombs on sites buried deep underground without being detected. They arrived, unleashed their ordnance and departed without Iran firing a single missile at them or scrambling even one fighter jet to confront them. Trump sees himself as a master of the art of the deal. But he's turned out to be more a master of deception. He lulled Iran into thinking he was still up for negotiating a deal while secretly green-lighting Israel's attacks on Iran, which started on Friday the 13th (unlucky for some). He said he'd take up to two weeks to decide if he'd deploy US bunker-busters against Iran – then did so after two days. Trump's administration let it be known that B-2 bombers were on their way across the Pacific – while the real strike force was heading for Iran over the Atlantic . US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth claimed Iran's nuclear bombmaking facilities had been 'obliterated'. Its top military man, General Dan 'Razin' Caine, was more cautious, saying initial estimates were that all three nuclear sites attacked – Natanz, Isfahan and Fordow – suffered 'sustained severe damage' but it would take time to establish a more complete picture. Trump wants Iran to restart talks to give up its nuclear capabilities . That's his preferred option. But he's equally clear that if Tehran refuses or, worse, retaliates for yesterday's strike, then he will authorise further assaults. He's certainly assembled the firepower in the region to deliver his threat – including two massive aircraft carrier groups. The real significance of what happened at the weekend is that, should the Iranian regime decide to escalate the conflict or continue to pursue its nuclear ambitions, it will face not just Israel, but the combined military might of Israel and the United States. That is a truly historic development – and should give Iran cause to pause. But nobody really knows who is running the show in Tehran now. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is 86, in very poor health, bereft of several of his closest advisers ( killed by Israel ), holed up in a bunker for his own safety and without an agreed heir apparent. His lifelong strategy – to arm Iran with nuclear weapons and establish it as the dominant power in the Middle East – lies in tatters. Iran is on its knees. The idea he or those around him are still capable of a coherent or rational response may be fanciful. In the aftermath of yesterday's attack, Iran's parliament voted to authorise the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which most Gulf oil and gas passes in massive tankers . But that decision can only be taken by Khamenei in cahoots with his national security council. It would certainly cause the global economy some short-term pain as energy prices spiked. But it would also be a body blow to the regime, which needs fossil-fuel revenues to sustain the military and pay the Revolutionary Guards and assorted thugs that are so vital to it keeping its grip on power. The risk is that hotheads gain the upper hand – as they have in the past – and go for a scorched earth policy, realising the game is up but determined to take whoever they can down with them. So, close the Strait of Hormuz, fire missiles at the oil and gas fields of the Gulf states and wreak revenge on US bases in the region. But any of that would bring the full might of American and Israeli air power down on the regime's head, leaving it not just without a nuclear capability but without a functioning economy – a likely precursor to the overthrow of a dictatorship that has long passed its sell-by date for most Iranians. Israel and the US deny regime change is the goal. But Washington and Jerusalem both know that the best guarantee of a non-nuclear Iran is a more reasonable, post-Islamist government in Tehran. It is, of course, for Iranians to determine their government. Nobody is talking about boots on the ground. Aerial bombing is a somewhat blunt and inexact way of creating conditions for a better government. But America and Israel are agreed that now is the time to keep up the pressure on a regime responsible for so much misery – an alliance buoyed by the better prospects its demise would bring for Israel, America, the Sunni Arabs in the Gulf and, above all, the Iranian people. It's certainly a more worthy goal than the usual hand-wringing, vacuous calls for 'de-escalation' and 'stability' from European leaders, including our own Keir Starmer, who clearly disapproved of the US strike yet welcomed the setback to Iran's nuclear ambitions – a classic case, if ever there was one, of willing the ends but not the means. No matter. Britain and Europe don't even have walk-on parts in the events unfolding in the Middle East. They are mere spectators who think they still count – but thankfully don't. America and Israel, with the tacit support of the Sunni Arabs, are showing that strength, properly deployed in a good cause, can make a difference. Britain and Europe barely have any strength these days – which explains why they disparage its use. The world should be grateful that neither is in the driving seat.
Daily Mail
6 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
ANDREW NEIL: A daring raid that means Iran's brutal regime has now run out of options... the end of days beckons
The clerical-military dictatorship which has ruled Iran for almost 50 years has run out of options. President Trump's daring raid on Iran's nuclear facilities further undermines a regime which is already reeling from multiple humiliations at home and abroad. For the medieval mullahs and their brutal generals, there is no good way forward, no credible response that doesn't involve more humiliation amounting to capitulation.
Washington Post
19-06-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
I hate Khamenei's regime. But I love Iran even more.
Arash Azizi is a contributing writer at the Atlantic and author of 'What Iranians Want: Women, Life, Freedom.' I've loathed the dictatorship of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for as long as I can remember. As a kid, I'd roll my eyes every morning during the obligatory salute to our supreme leader in the schoolyard. I resented the strictures, the atmosphere of moral probity the man in robes presided over.
Times
19-06-2025
- Politics
- Times
Who is Iran's ruthless supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei?
Tehran's bitter winter had penetrated the dungeon and left the frail inmate shivering with cold. Houshang Asadi, a communist dissident, took pity on his cellmate and gave him his sweater. The man refused it at first before tearfully accepting the gift. 'Houshang,' the man said, 'when Islam will come to power, not a single tear will be shed.' That memory of Ali Khamenei in 1975 as an idealist who suffered for his opposition to the Shah stayed with Asadi for decades to come. Years later, in 2003, Khamenei, now the undisputed dictator of Iran who threw young men and women into those same dungeons, repaid Asadi's kindness by forcing him into exile. 'He changed from a man who fought for freedom into a dictator,' Asadi told an interviewer. 'Now Mr Khamenei is more of a dictator than a shah.' If he met him again, he said, he would ask: 'Who are you, Mr Khamenei?' • Israel-Iran conflict: follow the latest news Khamenei might answer that he is a survivor, born to an impoverished cleric, Javad Khamenei, in the religious Iraqi city of Najaf in 1939. He began his religious studies at four, studying under various jurists, until one day in 1958 he came across Ruhollah Khomeini — later supreme leader of Iran from 1979 to 1989 — in the Iranian seminary city of Qom. That encounter set Khamenei down a path that almost led to his death this week, when Israel spotted an opportunity to kill the leader — although the US vetoed the plan. If Khamenei escaped assassination, it would not be the first time. He had become a confidant of Khomeini, who began sending him on missions across Iran to agitate against the Shah, leading to his arrest and eventual exile. He returned to Iran triumphantly in 1979 with his mentor, and quickly rose up the ranks of the new Islamic regime. Two years later, a bomb hidden in a tape recorder blew up in his face as he gave a religious lecture, leaving him with a paralysed right arm. • Does Iran have nuclear weapons? Why Israel is attacking now In a picture taken at his hospital bed, Khamenei peers out from behind his thick spectacles, his arm in a sling, with a faint smile hidden by his bushy moustache and beard. Three months later, he became the president of Iran. Iran in the 1980s was torn by revolutionary fervour, purges and war. Opponents of the new Islamic regime were 'disappeared' and executed, as Khomeini sought to plant the seeds of Islamic revolution — and Iran's influence — in the region by backing militants from Lebanon to Kuwait. Iraq, backed by the US and Gulf countries, invaded Iran, setting off a ruinous war. The Iraqis were beaten back fairly quickly but Khomeini and Khamenei decided to counter-invade Iraq, a decision Khamenei later rued as Iran became bogged down in a war attrition that only ended in 1988. Before Khomeini died a year later, he had chosen Khamenei to succeed him. It was a controversial choice. Khomeini had been widely expected to be replaced by the relatively moderate Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, with whom he had fallen out shortly before his death. • Inside the Iranian opposition, from a rapper to the Shah's son Unlike Montazeri, Khamenei was not a Shia religious authority, a prerequisite to become the supreme leader. But Khomeini's confidence in him — and his own uncanny ability to build a network of alliances throughout the state — thrust him onto the voting council. As with Asadi's sweater on that winter's day in 1975, Khamenei made a show of declining the gift. 'My nomination should make us all cry tears of blood,' he said. He spent the following three decades ruthlessly entrenching himself, often at the expense of the state, by planting loyalists in the Islamic Republic's power centres and playing them off each other, weakening all but him. A self-professed admirer of western literature with the affectations of a philosopher, Khamenei had doubled down on Khomeini's hatred of the US and Israel. On his watch, Iran turned into an undisputed regional power, building allies and proxies in Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon and Gaza, while building the region's largest missile arsenal and furthering its nuclear programme. He occasionally allowed reformist presidents to be elected, only to undermine them publicly and privately. • The Iran-Israel conflict in maps, video and satellite images His police and soldiers periodically put down protests, and his regime is more unpopular than ever. In recent years, Khamanei has busied himself with preparations for his succession. After President Raisi was killed in a helicopter crash last year, he appears to have settled on one of his six children, Mojtaba. Those plans are in disarray. Iran's allies in the region have been devastated by war with Israel over the past two years, and Khamenei, who had predicted the Jewish state's demise by 2030, may not survive this one.
