Ferreira, Joaquim Câmara

(d. 1970)

   Member of the Ação Libertadora Nacional (ALN, National Action for Liberation), an urban guerrilla organization in Brazil. He was one of the “big three”—the guerrilla leaders most prominent in the armed opposition to Brazil’s military dictatorship. The others were Carlos Lamarca and Carlos Marighella. Ferreira and Marighella had been active in the Partido Comunista Brasileiro (PCB, Brazilian Communist Party), but after the 1964 military coup that ousted the left-leaning President João Goulart, they grew impatient with the PCB’s passive stance. In 1967, Marighella founded the ALN as a PCB offshoot committed to armed struggle, and Ferreira became his chief ally. In November 1969, Ferreira became ALN’s leader after Marighella died in an ambush set by Sérgio Fleury, a notorious torturer. Ferreira died in October 1970, one of Fleury’s torture victims.