On 14 June, three boxes containing records of brutal torture and repression suffered under two decades of Brazilian military rule were returned to the South American country from Switzerland, where the material has resided at the World Council of Churches archives.

Brazil was under a military dictatorship from 1964 to 1985. The material will add more documentation for people seeking compensation for their sufferings

Brazil’s evangelical movement, which U.S. churches started a century ago, has exploded in this traditionally Roman Catholic country, nearly doubling during the 1990s to some 26.2 million people, or about 15 percent of the population, according to the most recent census, taken in 2000.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, March 31 (Reuters) - Aderbal Ashogun, a priest in the Afro-Brazilian religion called candomble, claps his hands three times and says a prayer before putting out a candle left at the foot of a tree in Rio de Janeiro's Tijuca Forest.

BELFORD ROXO, Brazil -- Beyond the storefront churches and sidewalk bars on Rio's gritty north side, where the asphalt ends and dirt roads begin, Brazil gives way to Africa.