Marighella, Carlos (1911–1969)

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

Marighella was born on December 5, 1911, in the Bahia state of eastern Brazil. His father, Augustus, was an Italian immigrant, and his mother, Marialva, was an Afro-Brazilian and a descendent of slaves. At the age of 19, Carlos joined the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB) as an organizer and activist. He spent most of the years during World War II in jail. When he was released in 1952, he joined the Central Committee of the Communist Party, and in 1953 he traveled to China and met with Mao Zedong.

By 1963, Brazil had experienced a military coup and become a totalitarian state. By 1965, two-thirds of Brazil's population was living in cities—a major change for this vast nation. The populace had never embraced the military leaders, however, 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. Marighella began to disagree with the PCB, and he was thrown out of the party in August 1967. He then 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, ambushes, assassinations, and acts of sabotage. 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 it also 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 [Page 376]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.