The day September 4, 1969 was marked, in Brazil, by the kidnapping of the American ambassador Charles Burke Elbrick (1908-1983), in the context of the radicalization of the revolutionary left during the term of the regimenMilitary (1964-1985). This event had international repercussions at the time and to this day it remains in public discussions, held both among the participants in the action and among the military, journalists and historians.
Left-wing revolutionary groups active in Brazil after the 1964 coup, such as the AP (Popular Action), which had already been mentioned in the bomb attack on Guararapes Airport, in Recife, in 1966, and the ALN (Ação Libertadora Nacional) – a dissidence of the Brazilian Communist Party) –, had opted for the struggle armed, which included bank robberies to raise funds, theft of weapons, bomb making and kidnappings. The objectives claimed by such groups were, a priori, to free other members of the factions who had been imprisoned by the military. The main goals were based on revolutionary ideologies with pretensions of carrying out a revolution in Brazil. This ideology had varied matrixes, ranging from the
maxism-leninism to the focusismguevarista (inspired by the ideas of CheGuevara).The group that envisioned Elbrick's kidnapping was known as DI-GB, that is, the DissentGuanabara, active in Rio de Janeiro and with wide influence among students. The initial objective of the DI-GB was to free one of the members of the group from prison, using an armed invasion, vladimirPalm tree. However, the creators of the action, FranklinMartins and CidBenjamin, after a series of elaborations of plans, they opted not only for the kidnapping of the ambassador, but also for the exchange of the American representative in Brazil for another 14 political prisoners, in addition to the aforementioned vladimirPalmares. To this end, the DI-GB group, which, that year, in honor of the date of the death of Cuban guerrilla Che Guevara, had changed its name to MR-8, Revolutionary Movement October 8, needed the help of ALN members.
The kidnapping took place at 2:30 pm, on Rua Marquês, in the Rio de Janeiro neighborhood of Humaitá. The main parties involved in the kidnapping operation were JoaquimChamberFerreira (known as Toledo), of ALN, VirgilGomesgivesSilva (known as Jonah),FranklinMartins,MonoelCyrillo,PaulinTarsusWenceslaus, Vera Sílvia Magalhães, Claudiustowers,FernandoGabeira,CidBenjamin and Daniel Aaron Reis Filho, all from the DI-GB/MR-8. The captivity period lasted almost three days, at which time the ALN notification of authorship occurred and the MR-8, as well as the requirements that such organizations have imposed as a condition for the release of the ambassador. In the manifest released by the kidnappers, were the following requirements:
“a) The release of fifteen political prisoners. There are fifteen revolutionaries among the thousands who suffer torture in prison barracks across the country, who are beaten, beaten, and who suffer from the humiliations imposed by the military. We are not demanding the impossible. We are not demanding the restitution of the lives of countless fighters murdered in prisons. Those will not be released, it is illogical. They will be avenged one day. We only demand the release of these fifteen men, leaders of the struggle against the dictatorship. Each of them is worth a hundred ambassadors, from the people's point of view. But a US ambassador is also worth a lot, from the point of view of dictatorship and exploitation.”
“b) The publication and reading of this message, in its entirety, in the main newspapers, radio and television stations across the country. The fifteen political prisoners must be taken by special plane to a specific country – Algeria, Chile or Mexico – where they are granted political asylum. No reprisals should be attempted against them, under penalty of retaliation.”
The names of political prisoners chosen by ALN and DI-GB/MR-8 were: Luísplatters,JosephDirceu,JosephIbrahim,OnofreChick,Ricardovillages,MariaAugusta,RicardoZarattini,RollingFrati,JoãoLeonardo,AfonaltoPacheco,vladimirPalm tree,IvensMarchetti,FlavioTavares, marioZanconato and GregoryHeifer (the latter, a historical militant of the Brazilian Communist Party). All those chosen were or had connections with revolutionary faction leaders.
The fifteen chosen people boarded a plane from the FAB (Brazilian Air Force), a Hercules56, who led them to Mexico, where they were released. All militants were invited by Fidel Castro to go to Cuba and stay there, if they were interested in guerrilla training, underground, etc., or, from there, to go wherever they wanted.
The kidnapping of ambassador Elbrick was told, in a fictionalized way, in the book “What is this companion?”, by Fernando Gabeira, which was taken to the cinema by Bruno Barreto in 1997. The details of the event are also told by the kidnappers themselves in the documentary “Hercules 56”, by SilvioDa-Rin, of 2006.
By Me. Cláudio Fernandes
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/datas-comemorativas/sequestro-charles-elbrick.htm