Carlos Lamarca: From army captain to Brazil's 'most wanted'

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 27 May 2024

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 1964, João Goulart, the president of Brazil, was overthrown in a military coup.

In the repression which followed, hundreds of people were disappeared or killed, and many more detained and tortured.

Carlos Lamarca was a captain who deserted the army and joined in the armed struggle against the military regime. He was shot dead in 1971.

His friend and fellow fighter, João Salgado Lopes, tells Vicky Farncombe about their time together hiding in the Caatinga, the Brazilian outback.

(Photo: Wanted poster of Carlos Lamarca. Credit: Memories of the Dictatorship)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Take some time for yourself with soothing classical music from the mindful mix,
0:06.0	the Science of Happiness Podcast.
0:08.0	For the last 20 years I've dedicated my career to exploring the science of living a happier more meaningful life and I want
0:14.4	to share that science with you.
0:16.1	And just one thing, deep calm with Michael Mosley.
0:19.4	I want to help you tap in to your hidden relaxation response system and open the door to that
0:25.4	calmer place within. Listen on BBC Sounds. You're listening to the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service with me
0:41.1	Vicky Farncombe. I'm taking you back to 1971 when one of Brazil's most wanted
0:47.4	men, Kalash Lamarka, was shot dead by police. The former captain was branded a traitor because he left the army
0:57.0	to fight the country's military regime. We gave each other a big hug. His last words to me were there to fight, there to win.
1:10.0	Joao L'Eau-Lapeche Salgado, talking about his final moments with his friend Carlos Lamarca.
1:18.0	Lamarca was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1937.
1:22.4	His mother was a housewife and his father was a shoemaker. From a very
1:26.8	young age he wanted to be a soldier inspired by the novel War and Peace. At 17 he enrolled as a cadet and from there went to the
1:35.7	renowned a Gulesh Neagres military academy in his NJ. His military record shows
1:41.6	he was a crack shot.
1:43.0	One of his first assignments was in the Middle East,
1:46.0	where he was part of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force.
1:49.0	It was there he became interested in socialist ideas, but he returned to a Brazil
1:55.4	about to undergo a dramatic shift in politics.
1:58.8	It was his sympathies with nearer at hand for Del Castro that the Brazilians really fear.
2:03.8	In 1964, the country's left-wing President Gulat was overthrown.
	...

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