Corporate Responsibility for Rights Violations during the Dictatorship
The CJT/UFMG was selected, according to a public call available on the website of the Center for Forensic Anthropology and Archeology of the Federal University of São Paulo (CAAF/UNIFESP), to investigate the links between Fiat Automóveis S/A and the Brazilian business-military dictatorship.
This research is part of a broader project entitled “The responsibility of companies for violations of rights during the dictatorship”, coordinated by CAAF/UNIFESP and financed by the Term of Adjustment of Conduct (TAC) signed between the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, the Prosecutor’s Office of the State of São Paulo, the Labor Prosecutor’s Office and Volkswagen do Brasil Indústria de Veículos Automotores Ltda. The agreement was signed in September 2020, due to the investigation of Volkswagen’s complicity in human rights violations that occurred during the civil-military dictatorship by Civil Inquiry No. 1.34.001.006706/2015-26.
In addition to stipulating compensation to workers who had their rights violated, as well as other initiatives of memory and truth, the agreement in question allocated resources to the investigation into the possible complicity of 10 other companies with the repressive apparatus, namely: Companhia Docas de Santos; Petrobras, Fiat; Itaipu; Josapar; Paranapanema; Cobrasma; Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional; Folha de São Paulo; e Aracruz.