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Carlos Marighella
Historical figureBrazil1911-1969

Carlos Marighella

Founder of the Ação Libertadora Nacional (ALN) · Federal deputy for Bahia (1946)

Brazilian communist who broke with his party and founded an armed group against the military dictatorship, wrote the Minimanual of the Urban Guerrilla and was shot dead by political police in 1969.

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Profile on 12 axes6 of 12 documented
ECONOMYSTATESOCIETYWORLDOwnershipMarketsWelfareAuthoritySecurityStructureMoralityReligionTechnologyCultureTradeForeign
Where they stood

Carlos Marighella, axis by axis

  1. 01Ownership-90
    PublicPrivate

    Scored from his 33 years as a Communist militant and a call for revolution. The pages checked do not give a detailed economic program.

  2. 02Markets-90
    PlannedFree
  3. 03Welfare-80
    SharedSelf-reliant
  4. 04Authority+30
    DemocraticStrong leader

    He fought a military dictatorship in the name of revolution and had once sat in an elected assembly, but he envisioned a vanguard-led armed struggle, not a pluralist system. The score is a judgment call.

  5. 05Security-20
    LibertyOrder

    He opposed a police state and was tortured by it, yet he urged kidnappings, bank raids and what he called terrorism. The score sits near the middle.

  6. 06StructureNo clear record
    LocalCentral
  7. 07MoralityNo clear record
    ProgressiveTraditional
  8. 08ReligionNo clear record
    SecularReligious
  9. 09TechnologyNo clear record
    EmbraceCaution
  10. 10CultureNo clear record
    MulticulturalNational identity
  11. 11TradeNo clear record
    GlobalProtected
  12. 12Foreign policy+30
    CooperationStrength

    He joined a kidnapping of the US ambassador and built a movement based on armed force, so the score leans toward strength. No detailed foreign policy is documented.

6 axes have no clear record, so matching leaves them out.

Who was Carlos Marighella?

Carlos Marighella was born in Salvador, Bahia, in 1911. He joined the Brazilian Communist Party in 1936 and stayed for 33 years as a professional militant. In 1946 he was elected a federal deputy for the party, but the government stripped communist politicians of their seats that same year. Jailed several times, he was expelled from the party in 1967 and in 1968 founded the Ação Libertadora Nacional with other dissidents. In June 1969 he wrote the Minimanual of the Urban Guerrilla. Political police killed him in São Paulo on 4 November 1969.

Political views

  • He joined the Brazilian Communist Party in 1936 and remained a militant for 33 years, including a visit to China in 1953 and 1954 at the invitation of the party's central committee.Source: memoriasdaditadura.org.br
  • He won a seat in the 1946 constituent Congress for the Communist Party of Bahia, but the Dutra government cancelled the mandates of communist politicians that year.Source: memoriasdaditadura.org.br
  • The party expelled him in 1967 over political differences, and he founded the ALN in 1968 with other dissidents.Source: memoriasdaditadura.org.br
  • In his June 1969 Minimanual he called on opponents of the military dictatorship to act, however small the task, and listed bank assaults, ambushes, kidnapping, sabotage and terrorism among the methods.Source: marxists.org
  • He signed the Minimanual so as to take responsibility for ideas drawn from his group's armed experience, and he recast the words violence and terrorism as positive labels for revolutionary action.Source: marxists.org
  • In September 1969 the ALN, together with the MR-8, kidnapped the US ambassador Charles Elbrick, and 15 political prisoners were freed in exchange.Source: memoriasdaditadura.org.br

Legacy

Admirers see Marighella as a persecuted opponent of a military dictatorship, jailed four times with reports of torture and finally shot down by the state. His death was an act of state violence: officials claimed a gunfight, but Brazil's National Truth Commission and the special commission on political deaths concluded he was executed after being immobilized, and the state was held responsible. Critics, including many on the Brazilian left, charge that the ALN's bank raids and kidnappings put civilians at risk and that his open embrace of terrorism gave the regime an excuse for harsher repression.

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Carlos Marighella: questions

What was the Minimanual of the Urban Guerrilla?

A June 1969 handbook by Carlos Marighella urging opponents of Brazil's military dictatorship to take up armed action. Its chapters cover bank assaults, ambushes, kidnapping, sabotage and terrorism.

Was Carlos Marighella a communist?

Yes. He joined the Brazilian Communist Party in 1936 and stayed 33 years, until he was expelled in 1967. He then founded the Ação Libertadora Nacional with other dissidents.

How did Carlos Marighella die?

Political police shot him in an ambush in São Paulo on 4 November 1969. The official story was a gunfight, but Brazilian truth commissions concluded he was executed after being immobilized.

Sources