After years of trying to put the past behind it, Brazil has created a truth commission to investigate crimes committed during a painful period in history known as the dirty war.
Hundreds of people disappeared or were killed during a 20-year military dictatorship that ended in 1985. Violent student protests and an armed underground movement were squashed in brutal crackdowns.
Some 9,000 people were jailed and tortured. Among them was a young leftist guerrilla, Dilma Rousseff, who went on to become the current president of Brazil.
Rousseff inaugurated the commission in May.
"Brazil deserves the truth. The new generations deserve the truth," she said at a ceremony in Brasilia.
"Above all, those who lost friends and relatives and who continue suffering as if they were dying again every day deserve the truth," she said as she choked back tears.
A blanket amnesty law drawn up during the dictatorship means the commission won't launch any trials. But some Brazilians hope it could be a first step toward having that law abolished, something that has already happened in neighboring Argentina and Uruguay.