CRITICS of Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro say he is attempting to rewrite history by appointing supporters of the country’s military dictatorship to investigate those who were killed and disappeared under its rule.

Last week he replaced four members of the Commission of Political Dead & Missing days after he was confronted by members angry over his rejection of its report on the killing of Fernando Santa Cruz, a left-wing activist during the 1964-1985 military junta. Mr Bolsonaro claimed — without evidence — that Mr Santa Cruz had been killed by “terrorist group” Acao Popular.

This contradicted the truth commission’s report, which found that the activist’s 1974 death was “violent, caused by the Brazilian state, in the context of the systematic and generalised persecution” of political activists during the dictatorship.