Marighella, Carlos (1911–1969)

Carlos Marighella, one of South America's most famous revolutionaries, founded and controlled the Acao Libertadora Nacional (Action for National Liberation; ALN). His writings include essays on revolutionary method and the Minimanual of the Urban Guerrilla (1969), a handbook for urban warfare that has influenced terrorists the world over since its publication.

Son of Augustus and Marialva Marighella, a black Italian immigrant to Brazil, Carlos Marighella was born on December 5, 1911 in the Bahia state of eastern Brazil. At age 19 he joined the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB) as an organizer and activist. He spent most of the years during World War II in jail; when released in 1952, he joined the Central Committee of the Communist Party; he traveled to China in 1953 and met with Mao Tse-tung.

By 1963, Brazil had experienced a military coup and had become a totalitarian state. By 1965, two-thirds of Brazil's population were living in cities—a major change for this vast nation. The populace had never embraced the military leaders—preferring a traditional civilian government. Partly in response to the military dictatorship, a number of small urban terrorist groups formed, composed of activists, students, artists, and Communist dissenters.

The Communist Party had been forced underground by the government; when Marighella began to disagree with the PCB, he was thrown out of the party in August of 1967 and formed the ALN in 1968. Many others, mostly radical intellectuals, left the Communist Party with Marighella; these individuals formed the core of the ALN, a group that eventually grew to nearly 200. Throughout 1968 and 1969, the ALN brought guerrilla warfare into the cities with a series of bombings, bank assaults, kidnappings, sabotage, ambushes, and assassinations. Ambassadors were kidnapped and security forces were murdered. The government struck back after each incident—sometimes arresting thousands in citywide raids. Brazil's rulers even created a Department of Social and Political Order to handle this onslaught of urban terrorism. The violence had two outcomes: it created exactly the chaos that the terrorists wanted, but also it brought about their demise.

In June 1969, Marighella wrote his Minimanual of the Urban Guerrilla. The ALN read it live over Brazilian radio, and the document, published as a book and translated into many languages, became a popular discussion of and guide to urban warfare for militant groups worldwide. The book explains the reason and strategy for urban terrorism: “It is necessary to turn political crisis into armed crisis by performing violent actions that will force those in power to transform the military situation into a political situation. That will alienate the masses, who, from then on, will revolt against the army and the police and blame them for this state of things.”

On November 30, 1969, Marighella was killed in a police ambush; the ALN subsequently collapsed. Within two years, much of the urban terrorism in Brazil ceased, with most of the terrorists either dead or jailed.