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Carlos Lamarca (; October 27, 1937 – September 17, 1971) was a Brazilian Army Captain who desertion to join the armed struggle against the Brazilian military dictatorship. He was part of the Popular Revolutionary Vanguard ( Vanguarda Popular Revolucionária – VPR) and became, along with Carlos Marighella, one of the leaders of the armed struggle. Such groups were armed chiefly for self-protection from the Right-wing dictatorship that unleashed state terrorism against any who opposed their regime, including students, the clergy, and the children of those who called for democracy. The kidnappings by a few armed groups were conducted to free comrades suffering extremely brutal torture in Brazil's prisons.
Lamarca was a member of the United Nations Peacekeeping in Gaza City during the Suez Crisis. He later returned to Brazil, where he supported the military coup. In 1967, he was promoted to Captain. In 1969, he deserted from the Army to join VPR, stealing in the process a truck full of military equipment with him.
The theft of the armaments was organized and carried out by him and by Sergeant Darcy Rodrigues, who supposedly convinced Lamarca to join VPR. Also participating in this operation were Corporal Mariani and Private Roberto Zanirato, later murdered under torture in DOI-CODI.
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 two 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.GASPARI, Elio - A Ditadura Escancarada, p. 196 e 197.
In the same year, Lamarca commanded the kidnap of the Swiss Ambassador Giovanni Enrico Bucher, with the purpose of switching 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).
Yavelberg was killed two days before Lamarca, under suspicious circumstances in an apartment in Salvador, capital of Bahia.
The City Hall of Ipupiara built a public square in the location where Lamarca died. It is equipped with a playground, a fountain, a canteen, an amphitheatre and a statue of Lamarca. The Praça Capitão Carlos Lamarca ( Captain Carlos Lamarca Public Square) was inaugurated on January 13, 2007. The city also paid a tribute to Lamarca by creating a law which added September 17, the day of his death, to the list of local holidays.
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