Carlos Marighella

Carlos Marighella was a Brazilian politician, writer, and militant of Marxist–Leninist orientation. He was critical of nonviolent resistance to the Brazilian military dictatorship, and founded the Ação Libertadora Nacional, a Marxist–Leninist urban guerrilla group, which was responsible for a series of bank robberies and high-profile kidnappings. He was killed by police in 1969 in an ambush. Marighella's most famous contribution to revolutionary literature was the Minimanual of the Urban Guerrilla, a training manual for the ALN and other guerrilla groups. He was considered by the CIA as Che Guevara's successor in igniting new guerrilla movements in Latin America. He was also a poet and a professor, and was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1946. He was the son of an Italian immigrant and an Afro-Brazilian woman, and was raised in a Catholic household. He joined the Brazilian Communist Party in 1927 and was imprisoned several times for his political activities. He broke with the party in 1964 and formed his own revolutionary organization. He was admired by many leftists and social movements as a symbol of resistance and struggle against oppression.