Armed struggle against the Brazilian military dictatorship

Armed resistance in Brazil
Date1964 – 1985
Location
Brazil
Result

Brazilian military victory

  • military dictatorship abolished in response to Diretas Já
Belligerents

Brazil Brazil

Brazilian Armed Forces

Federal Police of Brazil

Communist rebel groups:

Commanders and leaders
Brazil Pascoal Ranieri Mazzilli (1964)
Brazil Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco (1964-1967)
Brazil Artur da Costa e Silva (1967-1969)
Brazil Brazilian military junta of 1969 (1969)
Brazil Emílio Garrastazu Médici (1969-1974)
Brazil Ernesto Geisel (1974-1979)
Brazil João Figueiredo (1979-1985)		 João Amazonas
Maurício Grabois Executed
Vladimir Palmeira
Daniel Aarão Reis Filho
Carlos Lamarca †
Carlos Marighella †
Boanerges de Souza Massa (MIA)
Leonel Brizola

The armed struggle against the Brazilian military dictatorship involved several actions promoted by different left-wing groups between 1968 and 1972, the most severe phase of the regime. Despite its resistance aspect, the majority of the groups that participated in the armed struggle aimed to achieve a socialist revolution in Brazil, inspired by the Chinese and Cuban revolutions. Although some actions were held between 1965 and 1967, the confrontation deepened after the proclamation of Institutional Act Number Five (AI-5) in 1968.[1]

Many groups joined the armed struggle, including the National Liberation Action (Portuguese: Ação Libertadora Nacional - ALN), the National Liberation Command (Comando de Libertação Nacional - COLINA), the 8th October Revolutionary Movement (Movimento Revolucionário 8 de Outubro - MR-8), the Communist Party of Brazil (Partido Comunista do Brasil - PCdoB), the Popular Revolutionary Vanguard (Vanguarda Popular Revolucionária - VPR) and the Palmares Armed Revolutionary Vanguard (Vanguarda Armada Revolucionária Palmares - VAR-Palmares).[2]

The revolutionary organizations aimed to start rural guerrilla warfare, but were notable for their urban actions. Considered acts of armed propaganda for the revolution, the operations helped raise funds to unleash guerrilla warfare in the countryside and sustain the clandestine infrastructure of the organizations. The urban guerrillas, classified as terrorism by the dictatorial government and the Brazilian press, initially surprised the state's repressive apparatus, which quickly perfected and professionalized its combat against the rebels. The military high command established a police and bureaucratic apparatus based on espionage, intelligence gathering and operations aimed at capturing and interrogating political opponents of the regime through the systematic use of torture.[3]

Despite their initial success, the revolutionary organizations faced social isolation, which worsened after the repression and disinformation campaign perpetrated by some sectors of the dictatorship. Paramilitaries linked to federal government authorities carried out false flag operations against civilians and the military with the aim of eroding popular support for the rebels and justifying the deepening of authoritarianism. The armed actions in the cities were short-lived. Among all the organizations involved in the armed struggle, only PCdoB managed to effectively promote rural guerrilla warfare. The dismantling of the Araguaia guerrillas in 1974 marked the total collapse of the armed struggle in Brazil at the cost of hundreds of deaths, exiles and disappearances during the dictatorship.[3]

  1. ^ "ATO INSTITUCIONAL Nº 5, DE 13 DE DEZEMBRO DE 1968". Federal Government of Brazil. Retrieved 2024-02-13.
  2. ^ "Quais foram os grupos guerrilheiros que atuaram durante a ditadura militar". Gazeta do Povo. 2019-08-02. Retrieved 2024-02-08.
  3. ^ a b Angelo, Vitor Amorim (2011). "Ditadura militar, esquerda armada e memória social no Brasil" (PDF). UFSCar.