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Dilma Rousseff to Receive Compensation for Persecution During Brazil’s Military Dictatorship

27 October 2026 at 19:20

Former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff will receive a monthly compensation of R$ 17,562.80—equivalent to approximately 3,200 US dollars—as financial reparation for the political persecution, illegal detentions, and physical and psychological torture she endured during Brazil’s military dictatorship, which lasted from 1964 to 1985.

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Dilma Rousseff Calls for Keeping Memory on 1964 Military Coup

The measure was published this Tuesday, October 27, in the Official Gazette of the Federal Government (in Portuguese Diario Oficial da União) and follows a final ruling by the Federal Regional Court of the 1st Region (TRF1).

The resolution was issued by Brazil’s Ministry of Human Rights and Citizenship. In addition to the permanent monthly payment, the ministry calculated retroactive payments totaling R$ 6,616,492.19 for the period recognized by the judiciary, with financial effects dating back to October 21, 1997. Any amounts previously received by Rousseff as reparation must be deducted from this total.

The monthly payment was calculated based on the salary scales for professionals at the former Foundation for Economics and Statistics of Rio Grande do Sul (FEE)—a state-linked institution where Rousseff worked as an economist prior to her arrest. The reparation acknowledges the loss of her employment with that foundation as a consequence of political persecution during the military regime.

This month marks 60 years since Brazil's military coup ushered in 21 years of US-backed, authoritarian dictatorship. This weekend people came out to protest the amnesty law which protects military torturers & murderers from prosecution. My story @telesurenglish #23MSemAnistia pic.twitter.com/cxISd0tpQi

— BrianMier (@BrianMteleSUR) March 24, 2024

The judicial decision, issued in December 2025, mandated that the former president receive a permanent, ongoing monthly allowance, based on the remuneration for the position she held before her arrest. This new resolution replaces a previous measure from August 2025, which had established a one-time compensation payment of R$ 100,000.

Dilma Rousseff was detained in 1970, at the age of 22, for her involvement in a resistance organization against the Brazilian military dictatorship. During her captivity, she was subjected to physical and psychological torture and spent nearly three years in prison. The judicial system acknowledged that she had been persecuted and prevented from working from the day of her arrest until October 21, 1997.

The former president was a member of the Armed Revolutionary Vanguard Palmares (Vanguardia Armada Revolucionaria Palmares), a group that opposed the military regime. Financial reparation is a measure provided for under Brazilian law for individuals recognized as victims of political persecution during that period.

Rousseff joined the Workers’ Party (PT) in 1999, and four years later, she was appointed as a minister by then-president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. In January 2011, Lula handed the presidential sash to her following her electoral victory with 56.01% of the vote, making her the first female president in the history of Brazil.

🇧🇷 Lula wins a fourth presidential term in Brazil!

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has secured a fourth term with 51.77% of the valid vote, marking a decisive moment in Brazil’s political landscape.

What does Lula’s victory mean for Brazil’s future and the region? Share your thoughts… pic.twitter.com/eLDPfkeg12

— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish) October 26, 2026

Honduran Court Orders Capture of Former Congress President Redondo

24 October 2026 at 01:24
(FILE) Photo: Contracorriente.

A Honduras’ court issued arrest warrants with international alerts against former Congress president Luis Redondo and former state printing manager Edis Moncada over a parliamentary order for a vote-by-vote recount of the 2025 general election.


A Honduran court ordered the international capture of former National Congress president Luis Redondo and Edis Moncada, former manager of the National Graphic Arts Company, attaching international alerts to both warrants.

The measure took effect after the deadline expired for their voluntary appearance before charges filed by the Public Ministry.

RELATED: Honduras Congress Approves Funds for Maximum-Security Prison

The prosecutorial request names 14 former members of the now-defunct Permanent Commission of the legislative power. The criminal case brought by the Prosecutor’s Office contains 21 charges against the former leadership of that parliamentary body, alleging disturbance of institutional functioning, usurpation of functions and violation of officials’ duties.

#HCHNoticias | En exclusiva HCH le muestra la orden de captura contra el expresidente del Congreso Nacional, Luis Redondo, quien está acusado de dos delitos de violación a los deberes de los funcionarios.
FP pic.twitter.com/EzLfq095Wk

— HCH Televisión Digital (@HCHTelevDigital) October 23, 2026

14 Ex-Members Face Charges

The charges target two central decisions adopted by the legislature. One was the installation and institutionalization of the commission itself. The other was the promulgation of a sovereign decree ordering a vote-by-vote recount of the 2025 general election.

Opposition sectors describe the prosecution as part of a campaign to criminalize officials and mechanisms that flagged irregularities in those elections. The parliamentary order to audit the ballot count challenged the authority of the National Electoral Council and drew the reaction of power groups opposed to democratic control of the vote.

The activation of international alerts and the prosecution of numerous former legislative officials shows, in the view of critics, the use of the punitive apparatus to intimidate state institutions. The case sets a precedent against the power of elected representatives to safeguard the legitimacy and transparency of electoral processes, they argue.

The 2025 elections remain at the center of the dispute. The legislative power had demanded verification of the tally sheets after the vote, a step that conservative sectors rejected. The recount order sought to audit what those lawmakers considered irregularities in the results.

Text reads: “Statement / LIBRE party: Requiring votes to be counted is not a crime! Defending democracy is not a crime! We denounce the political persecution against the deputies of LIBRE Party for demanding that the electoral count be completed and the popular will be respected. The defense of democracy cannot become a reason for persecution. Political persecution will not silence LIBRE or the Honduran people!”

Opposition Denounces Political Persecution

In September, former presidential candidate Rixi Moncada of the Freedom and Refoundation Party (LIBRE), publicly denounced what she called “systematic political persecution and the establishment of a judicial dictatorship” in Honduras.

Moncada questioned decisions by the National Congress and the judiciary that led to the abrupt dismissal of senior constitutional officials. Among those removed were the Attorney General, the President of the Supreme Court, a councilor of the National Electoral Council and a magistrate of the Electoral Justice Tribunal.

She also warned about regulations aimed at mass dismissals of public employees and an energy counter-reform designed to hand over the management of the National Electric Energy Company (ENEE, in Spanish), to banking corporations and private generators.

In her analysis, Moncada linked the parliamentary offensive to impunity rulings handed down by the courts. She highlighted the acquittal of former President Juan Orlando Hernández in the so-called Pandora Case, which investigated the diversion of 282 million lempiras (about 14,252,618 dollars) to parties of the traditional oligarchy of the country.

The international arrest warrants extend the reach of the judicial process beyond Honduran borders. The alerts would allow authorities in other countries to detain the former officials if they travel or are located abroad.

For now, the courts move forward with the charges while the opposition frames the case as retaliation against those who pushed to audit the 2025 vote. The next phase will determine whether the former officials appear before the court, are detained, or contest the prosecution as politically motivated.

Ecuador Prosecutors Seek Preventive Detention for Leftist Leader Luisa Gonzalez

23 October 2026 at 17:42

The former presidential candidate was arrested over alleged irregularities in the handling of funds during the 2023 campaign.

On Friday, Prosecutor General’s Office requested preventive detention for leftist former presidential candidate Luisa Gonzalez, who was arrested on Thursday over the alleged irregular handling of funds from the 2023 election campaign.

RELATED:

Luisa Gonzalez Denounces Political Persecution After Detention in Ecuador

Prosecutors requested that she be provisionally held in prison while proceedings against Gonzalez continue. She is accused of the alleged crime of money laundering.

The case comes five weeks before subnational elections in Ecuador, an Andean country where Citizens Revolution, the main opposition force to the U.S.-backed President Daniel Noboa, has denounced judicial persecution of progressive politicians and activists.

The hearing to present charges against Gonzalez is taking place while the leftist leader remains detained at Model Barracks in Guayaquil. She was transferred there after being arrested in the early hours of Thursday at her home in Canuto, a rural locality in the province of Manabi.

During the same hearing, the Public Prosecutor’s Office also requested preventive detention for two other defendants in the case: former lawmaker Santiago Diaz, a Correista whose testimony prompted the investigation, and Wendy Onofre, a former official with the Municipality of Guayaquil under the administration of now-imprisoned Mayor Aquiles Alvarez.

The initial investigation into Gonzalez gained momentum in March following unsubstantiated testimony from Diaz, who was arrested and accused of raping a minor. He was sentenced to 29 years in prison in that case.

Diaz said he had allegedly brought cash from Venezuela on the orders of former President Rafael Correa (2007-2017) to finance Gonzalez’s campaign in the 2023 snap presidential election.

The Prosecutor General’s Office is seeking to establish whether the campaign also received money from a company owned by Aquiles Alvarez, another opponent of Noboa who became mayor of Guayaquil in 2023 with the support of Citizens Revolution, Correa’s party.

Alvarez is currently imprisoned and faces two convictions, one of them for the illegal sale of fuel through service stations he owns with his family.

Luisa Gonzalez was the Correismo candidate in the 2023 and 2025 presidential elections, losing to Noboa in the runoff in both contests.

Investigations targeting Citizens Revolution have led to the party’s suspension, barring it from participating in local elections scheduled for Nov. 29.

The US-backed right-wing narco-dictatorship in Ecuador has arrested presidential candidate Luisa González, from the leftist Correísta movement, on fabricated charges.

This came after Ecuador's narco-regime banned the main left-wing opposition party.

Ecuador is run by dictator… pic.twitter.com/h4Hzkmc2aX

— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) October 23, 2026

FDIM Demands Gonzalez’s Release

On Thursday night, the Women’s International Democratic Federation (FDIM) demanded the immediate release of Ecuadorian former presidential candidate Luisa Gonzalez.

“We denounce before the international community the kidnapping of our comrade Luisa Gonzalez, former candidate for the Presidency of Ecuador, by the fascist regime of Daniel Noboa,” the FDIM said.

“The capture of Luisa is part of the repressive plans of the Ecuadorian government, which intends to subdue, through repression, imprisonment, and kidnapping, all those who demonstrate against corruption and the government’s submission to Trump’s dictates.

“We demand respect for their physical and moral integrity. We demand the immediate release of Luisa Gonzalez, Jorge Glass, and all political prisoners,” the FDIM stated.

The legal proceedings against Gonzalez come weeks after the Electoral Disputes Tribunal upheld her political disqualification, preventing her from registering as a candidate for the Manabi provincial prefecture.

Before these events, the former presidential candidate herself had denounced foreign pressure and the recurring use of lawfare as methods to silence progressive social and political leaders.

Following her arrest, Gonzalez addressed the public, rejecting the allegations made by the Prosecutor General’s Office, describing the accusation against her as absurd and asserting that her case was part of a political persecution campaign driven by the Noboa administration.

In her statement, the opposition leader called on progressive organizations and the Citizens Revolution movement to unite to restore democracy in the country. She also thanked those who had expressed support for her nationwide.

“Sooner or later, the silence will explode in every corner of the country, and we will achieve the long-awaited democracy,” she said.

teleSUR/ JF

Source: EFE – FDIM

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