Brazilian journalist and writer Rodolfo Konder dies in São Paulo

Brazilian journalist, writer and professor Rodolfo Konder died on Thursday (Apr. 1) at the age of 76 in the city of São Paulo. Director of the Brazilian Press Association in São Paulo, Konder was a political activist who fought against the military dictatorship initiated in 1964. In 1975, he was arrested along with journalist Vladimir Herzog, and was the first to report that Herzog had been murdered by torturers.

For being an activist in the Brazilian Communist Party, Konder was forced to flee into exile during Brazil’s military rule. Over the years of the redemocratization period, he worked in several human rights organizations and headed the Brazilian branch of Amnesty International. He was also the brother of philosopher Leandro Konder.

A professor and journalist of nationwide renown, Konder worked for a number of newspapers as well as radio and television broadcasters. As a writer, he published over 20 books, among which Hóspede da solidão (A Guest of Loneliness), which earned him the Jabuti, Brazil’s highest literary prize, in 2001.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira