Carlos Lamarca

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Carlos Lamarca (born October 23, 1937 in Rio de Janeiro , † September 17, 1971 in Pintada, Bahia ) was a Brazilian professional officer . In 1969 he deserted and joined the communist underground movement Vanguardia Popular Revolucionária (VPR = Revolutionary People's Avant-garde ) as a "comandante" . He was tracked down and shot dead by security forces in the village of Pintada on September 17, 1971 . In 2007 he was posthumously rehabilitated . In addition to Carlos Marighella , Lamarca was one of the most internationally known representatives of urban guerrillas .

Origin and military career, desertion

Lamarca's father was a shoemaker. After attending high school, he entered a cadet training center in Porto Alegre in 1955 , and a military academy in Resende ( Rio de Janeiro ) in 1957 . In 1960 he became an officer candidate . He was considered an excellent marksman.

Plaque on the Military Academy in Porto Alegre with reference to Carlos Lamarca

1962-63 he served in the so-called Suez - battalion of the UN , which in Gaza ( Palestine was stationed). Back in Brazil, he experienced as a military policeman military coup of 1964, which caused its politicization. After various stations, he was transferred back to Porto Alegre at his own request and promoted to captain in 1967 . Through a subordinate, Sergeant Darcy Rodrigues, who was responsible for political education in the barracks , he came into contact with the works of Lenin and Mao . In early 1968, Lamarca contacted left-wing groups that advocated armed resistance against the regime established in 1964. He decided to desert and join a guerrilla group and founded a communist cell in his unit. In September 1968 he met with Carlos Marighella, the then leader of the communist splinter party PCdoB. He organized the departure of Lamarca's wife Maria Pavan Lamarca and their two sons to Cuba in order to secure Lamarca's future underground activities.

On January 24, 1969 Lamarca, Rodrigues, Private Jóse Mariani and the soldier Roberto Zanirato deserted, stealing 63 FAL rifles, three submachine guns and ammunition .

Guerrilla activity

Lamarcas began his underground activity in São Paulo , where he lived with the psychologist Iara Iavelberg (1943-1971), who belonged to the left-wing extremist guerrilla group Movimento Revolucionário 8 de Outubro (MR-8). On May 9, 1969, he shot and killed the security guard Orlando Pinto Saraiva in a bank robbery when he tried to prevent the bank robbers from escaping. During the year the VPR united with the Comando de Libertação Nacional (COLINA) and a splinter group called União Operária to form the VAR-Palmares . At the end of 1969 Lamarca left São Paulo, accompanied by Iavelberg and 16 comrades , to begin her military training in the Ribeira Valley ( Vale do Ribeira ).

In April 1970, units of the Brazilian security forces, especially the army , began to systematically cordon off the entire region and to monitor it with roadblocks . While some guerrillas fled the region, a hard core of six guerrillas formed around Lamarca. On May 8, 1970, at a road block in Eldorado Paulista, there was a skirmish with the São Paulo military police, in which two police officers were shot. The guerrillas had a breakthrough, but a few hours later there was a second skirmish with a group of military policemen led by Lieutenant Alberto Mendes Júnior, in which some military policemen were killed. Mendes was captured and, in the course of the further escape, was killed with a rifle butt by the guerrilla Yoshitane Fujimori, as the refugees feared that Mendes would give away their route. On May 31, 1969, they managed to break out of the region by hijacking an army truck and escaping to São Paulo.

In June 1970, ALN and VPR guerrillas kidnapped the West German ambassador Ehrenfried von Holleben in Rio and took him hostage . In exchange for his release, the military government had to release 40 political prisoners who were flown to Algeria . Although Lamarca was not involved in the kidnapping, the military government suggested to the public that he was in charge of the operation.

The kidnapping of the Swiss ambassador

In fact, on December 7, 1970, Lamarca led the kidnapping of the Swiss ambassador Giovanni Bucher in the Flamengo district in southern Rio. Lamarca shot and killed the security officer Hélio Carvalho de Araújo, who was accompanying Bucher in the embassy car. Bucher was hidden in a conspiratorial house in the Rocha Miranda district . Under threat of Bucher's murder, the government was forced to release 70 political prisoners. Although the majority of the kidnappers and part of the VPR base had supported the killing of Bucher, Lamarca's intervention prevented this. Bucher was released on January 16, 1971, after the government had released the political prisoners who were flown to Chile three days earlier .

Transfer to MR-8 and death

On March 22, 1971, Lamarca left the VPR and joined the MR-8; probably due to the influence of Iavelberg, with whom he had a relationship in the meantime. Under the code name Cirilo , he traveled to Buriti Cristalino ( Bahia ), where he found rural shelter with the family of MR-8 member José Zequinha Campos Barreto.

On August 21, 1971, the police in Ipanema discovered Lamarca's diary and letters to Iavelberg in a car belonging to the guerrilla César Benjamin. Based on the records in the diary and the letters as well as statements from prisoners of the MR-8, the police succeeded in locating Lamarca's whereabouts by comparing topographical information and descriptions of the vegetation . As a result, a special unit consisting of 215 members of the armed forces and the police, stormed the home of Zequinha's family on August 28, killing several family members.

Lamarca and Zequinha were not in the house at the time of the operation, but heard the gunshots and fled to the caatinga . On September 17, 1971, the two refugees were surprised by the special unit in the village of Pintada in the Ibipetum district. While Barreto was still able to open fire, Lamarca was apparently killed with seven shots without resistance. Barreto was also fatally hit. The bodies were transported to Salvador and Lamarca was anonymously buried in a cemetery. On September 22, 1971, the government imposed a news blackout to prevent Lamarca from being mythologized .

Legal aftermath since 2007

In 2007, the Amnesty Commission of the Ministry of Justice, Lamarca decided posthumously the rank of a colonel award of the army. His widow Maria Pavan Lamarca was awarded the pension of a brigadier general ; in addition, the two sons received compensation for their stay in Cuban exile. In addition, the Lamarca family was granted the status of politically persecuted.

In 2010, at the request of the politically influential military club ( Clube Militar ) , the judge Cláudia Maria Pereira Bastos Neiva suspended both the pension payments and the compensation for the two sons on the grounds that his exclusion from the army was justified by his desertion, which at the time was a criminal offense depicted. As far as is currently known (2012), the legal dispute is to be decided by a higher instance.

literature

  • Emiliano José / Oldack Miranda: Lamarca, o Capitão da Guerrilha , 5th edition São Paulo 1980
  • Wilma Antunes Maciel: O capitão Lamarca ea VPR. Repressão judicial no Brasil, São Paulo (Alameda) 2006. ISBN 85-98325-27-9

Movies

Web links

  • Carlos Lamarca in the uniform of the Brazilian armed forces, approx. 1966 [1]
  • Lamarca as a member of the Army Police, approx. 1965 [2]
  • Brazilian website with life data of Lamarcas [3]
  • BRAZIL. At zero. The Brazilian military dictators brought down their "public enemy number 1" , in: Der Spiegel , No. 40 of September 22, 1971, p. 108f. [4]
personal data
SURNAME Lamarca, Carlos
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Brazilian career officer
DATE OF BIRTH October 23, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH Rio de Janeiro
DATE OF DEATH 17th September 1971
Place of death Pintada, Bahia