Justice and politics

constituents of the legal universe present conceptually in the work “Os Sertões”, by Euclides da Cunha

Abstract

The keynote work for the 5th Latin American Congress “Law, Memory, Democracy, and Crimes Against Humanity” is “Os Sertões”, a text that may be classified as scientific literature because it systematically recounts, through the pen of Brazilian journalist Euclides da Cunha, a non-fictional event: the “Canudos Civil War”, which took place over eleven months between 1896 and 1897. The author covered part of the final campaign as a “war correspondent” and, therefore, as an eyewitness. The outcome of this conflict, endorsed by the newly installed Brazilian republican government, resulted, under the army’s command, in the massacre of the inhabitants of the Canudos community and the burning of the Arraial itself, which housed 20,000 residents. Although it is not procedurally possible to apply the Rome Statute to the Canudos episode, this does not preclude the necessary reflection on whether it could be typified as a “crime against humanity” and, consequently, the simulation of a trial before the International Criminal Court culminating in the punishment or acquittal of those responsible - an inevitably engaging debate on the declared and latent causes of this civil war.