Soledad Barrett Viedma () was a Paraguayan

militant The English word ''militant'' is both an adjective and a noun, and it is generally used to mean vigorously active, combative and/or aggressive, especially in support of a cause, as in "militant reformers". It comes from the 15th century Latin " ...

activist involved in the resistance to the

Brazilian military government The military dictatorship in Brazil ( pt, ditadura militar) was established on 1 April 1964, after a coup d'état by the Brazilian Armed Forces, with support from the United States government, against President João Goulart. The Brazilian dicta ...

. A granddaughter of the Spanish writer and activist

Rafael Barrett Rafael Ángel Jorge Julián Barrett y Álvarez de Toledo (1876–1910) was a Spanish writer, narrator, essayist and journalist, and a major figure in 20th century Paraguayan literature. Bibliography Rafael Barrett, "The Woman in Love" (englis ...

, she spent her childhood in Uruguay where she was kidnapped by a group of Neo-Nazis. Having undergone guerilla training in Cuba, she joined the militant

anti-fascist Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were ...

group Vanguarda Popular Revolucionária (VPR) in Brazil. In 1973, she was killed in the Massacre da Chácara São Bento, a massacre committed by Brazilian military police forces.

Early life

Soledad Barrett Viedma was born in January 1945 in Paraguay. Her father was Alejandro Barrett, the only son of the Spanish writer

who had settled in Paraguay in the early

1910s File:1910s montage.png, From left, clockwise: The Ford Model T is introduced and becomes widespread; The Sinking of the RMS Titanic, sinking of the R.M.S. Titanic, ''RMS Titanic'' causes the deaths of nearly 1,500 people and attracts global and h ...

. She spent most of her childhood in

Montevideo Montevideo () is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2011 census, the city proper has a population of 1,319,108 (about one-third of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...

where her family lived in exile due to their left-wing activism. At the age of 17, she was kidnapped by a Uruguayan group of Neo-Nazis. The incident resulted in two swastikas being incised on her thighs because she had refused to repeat slogans praising the German dictator Adolf Hitler.

Activism and death

In 1967, having been introduced to the milieu of

activism Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in Social change, social, Political campaign, political, economic or Natural environment, environmental reform with the desire to make Social change, changes i ...

, Barrett Viedma travelled to Cuba in order to undergo a guerilla training. It was there that she met her future husband, José Maria Ferreira de Araújo, a member of Vanguardia Popular Revolucionaria (VPR), a militant

group from Brazil. The couple had one daughter. After her husband had disappeared, she relocated to his native Brazil and joined the resistance against the

. She was stationed at Recife and began a relationship with José Anselmo dos Santos, also known as

Cabo Anselmo José Anselmo dos Santos (13 February 1942 – 15 March 2022), known as Cabo Anselmo ("Corporal Anselmo"), was a Brazilian military officer who was the leader of the 1964 Sailors' Revolt, Sailors' Revolt, which started the 1964 Brazilian cou ...

, a militant who had been a leader of the

1964 Brazilian coup d'état The 1964 Brazilian coup d'état ( pt, Golpe de estado no Brasil em 1964), colloquially known in Brazil as the Coup of 64 ('), was a series of events in Brazil from March 31 to April 1 that led to the overthrow of President João Goulart by membe ...

. On 8 January 1973, Barrett Viedma and five other members of the resistance movement were found dead in a barn in the town of São Bento,

Abreu e Lima Abreu e Lima is a Brazilian municipality in the state of Pernambuco. It is located in the Metropolitan Region of Recife, also known as Greater Recife. Abreu e Lima covers , and has a population of 100,346 with a population density of 780 inhabita ...

. According to the official version of events, they died during an armed confrontation with the police from which only Cabo Anselmo had managed to escape. It was later found, through the work of journalist

Elio Gaspari Elio Gaspari (born 1944 in Naples, Italy) is a Brazilian journalist and writer resident in São Paulo, Brazil. He came to Brazil while still an infant, and began his career in journalism not long thereafter. He is well known for his political op ...

, that the militants had been kidnapped in different locations, tortured and killed. The incident is known as the Massacre da Chácara São Bento and has been described by Gaspari as "one of the dictatorship's most savage massacres".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barrett Viedma, Soledad 1945 births 1973 deaths Paraguayan activists Dead and missing in the fight against the military dictatorship in Brazil (1964–1985)