The systemic human rights abuses of the military dictatorship in Brazil from 1964 to 1985 included extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances, torture, arbitrary detention, and severe restrictions on freedom of speech. Human Rights Watch has described the human rights abuses of the military dictatorship in Brazil as crimes against humanity. The Brazilian government's Institutional Act 5 of December 13, 1968, which suspended habeas corpus and constitutional protections and led to the institutionalization of torture as a tool by the state, brought on a period of state violence and repression. As James Petras argued, the military dictatorship's institutionalization of violence and systemic use of terror were fundamental to its short-lived "economic miracle". Source: Wikipedia (en)