Carlos Lamarca - Life in Guerrilla Warfare

Life in Guerrilla Warfare

Lamarca became one of the most active militants of the communist insurrency to the 1964 regime. He participated in several operations, such as banks robbery and a guerrilla warfare camp in the extreme south of the state of São Paulo.

In 1970, the Army discovered the camp after the arrest of several VPR members in April of that same year. On May 10, 1970, he participated in the assassination of Military Police officer Alberto Mendes Júnior, who surrendered to Lamarca's group in order to prevent the death of 2 of his fellow soldiers, who were severely injured and needed medical assistance. Mendes was then executed by Lamarca with several blows to the head with the buttstock of a rifle.

In the same year, Lamarca commanded the kidnap of the Swiss Ambassador Giovanni Enrico Bucher, with the purpose of switch him for political prisoners in Rio de Janeiro; in this kidnapping, the Federal Police Agent Hélio Carvalho de Araújo was shot to death by Lamarca. Araújo was in charge of the Swiss Ambassador's security.

Lamarca left VPR and joined the Revolutionary Movement 8th October. The new group sent him to Bahia, with the purpose of starting a Revolution in the countryside. On September 17, 1971, he was found by the Army in the small town of Pintada (currently Ipupiara), where he was killed while trying to resist arrest alongside VPR member José Campos Barreto (also known as Zequinha Barreto).