The Brazilian National Truth Commission (2012–2014) as a State-Commissioned History Project

Abstract

Focusing on the Brazilian National Truth Commission (2012-2014; hereafter: NTC), this chapter asks what this empirical case reveals about the processes and outcomes of state-commissioned history in the particular form of a truth commission. To what extent may the Brazilian example serve to challenge accepted concepts and assumptions about state-commissioned history? In order to answer these questions, we focus on the variety of mechanisms of state control from the formulation of the law that established its legal mandate in 2011 to the months following the commission's formal extinction in December 2014. In the Brazilian case, the state tried to restrain the commission's work from the outset through subtle legal, political and financial means. On a few occasions, NTC commissioners and civil society organizations found ingenious ways to overcome these limitations, whereas at other times the barriers proved insurmountable. These instances of circumventing state control demand a more sophisticated reading of truth commissions, one that recognizes the dichotomy between the state and civil society in all its complexity. Within this more complex reading, state-commissioned historical writing can best be conceptualized as