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.

A 2014 report by the commission concluded that at least 434 people were killed or disappeared during the dictatorship. It is estimated between 30,000 and 50,000 people were illegally arrested and tortured.

But Mr Bolsonaro, a former army captain and an open admirer of the military dictatorship, dismissed the findings of the report as “unfounded,” claiming the commission was biased against him.

Key members of the commission sacked included its president Eugenia Augusta Gonzaga Faver, which the Socialism & Liberty Party (Psol) said was a retaliation for the findings of the commission regarding Mr Santa Cruz.

Those dismissed were replaced by supporters of the military junta: retired colonel Weslei Antonio Maretti and army officer Vital Lima Santos and two legislators from Mr Bolsonaro’s Social Liberal Party (PSL) including Filipe Barros, who celebrated the anniversary of the 1964 military coup as “the day that Brazil was saved from the communist dictatorship.” He has labelled any criticism of the military regime, including claims of torture and deaths, “revisionism.”

Workers Party (PT) MP Paulo Pimenta, one of those sacked from the formerly non-partisan commission, said: “It is abominable, a farce, a disrespect, an affront to the Brazilian people and our entire history.

“Can you imagine what the situation would be like if, in Chile, a commission to investigate everything that happened to the dead and missing of the Chilean dictatorship was made up of people who are sympathisers of the Pinochet government?”

Psol leader in the lower house Ivan Valente warned that Mr Bolsonaro was trying to deny and cover up the crimes of the dictatorship. He accused Mr Bolsonaro of an abuse of power following the sackings.

“He can't nominate people — to a committee that has been researching for 25 years where the dead and missing are — who will exactly deny that there were political deaths and disappearances, that [people] faced repression, faced torture,” Mr Valente said.