Carlos Marighella
$9.95
“The accusation of ‘violence’ or ‘terrorism’ no longer has the negative meaning it used to have. It has acquired new clothing; a new color. It does not divide, it does not discredit; on the contrary, it represents a center of attraction. Today, to be ‘violent’ or a ‘terrorist’ is a quality that ennobles any honorable person, because it is an act worthy of a revolutionary engaged in armed struggle against the shameful military dictatorship and its atrocities.”
Title details
| Format | Paperback |
| Price | $9.95 |
| Dimensions | 4.5 x 7, 96 p. |
| ISBN | 9780811228404 |
| Title | Minimanual of the Urban Guerrilla |
| Author | Carlos Marighella |
| This edition published | December 2025 |
| Originally published | 1969 |
Carlos Marighella (1911-1969) was a Marxist-Leninist writer, politician, and guerrilla militant, the face of resistance against the Brazilian military dictatorship. Originally circulated in 1969 as Minimanual do Guerrilheiro Urbano, Marighella’s Minimanual of the Urban Guerrilla is both a modus operandi and a practical guide for asymmetric warfare. From the beginning, it has been photocopied and translated and mimeographed and otherwise freely distributed as a strategic resource—including, in the 1980s, by the CIA, which produced it as training material for various counterrevolutionary forces. It has also been banned in multiple countries, of course, including the United States.
While many of the specific tactics that Marighella describes may have outlived their usefulness, the urgency and unflinching directness of this fascinating text render it perpetually relevant to both historical study and contemporary resistance movements.
Rave reviews from the imperial core:
“The manual is clearly designed to foster terrorist activities in Latin America’s growing urban areas … It is conceivable that the document may become a principal statement for anyone who ‘takes the road of armed struggle.’ Marighella, at least, maintains that to be a ‘terrorist is a quality that ennobles any honorable man.’”
– CIA special report, 1970
“Marighella’s emphasis on terror as a tool for disrupting society borrows, of course, from the destructive spirit of anarchism, with its “propaganda of deed.” The current upsurge of terrorist actions, in fact, strongly recalls the last decades of the 19th century, when an anarchistic reign of terror spread a blanket of fear over Europe and the U.S.”
– Time, 1970
“Carlos Marighella’s Minimanual of the Urban Guerrilla goes out of its way to emphasize the desirability of terroristic methods for political purposes … Nevertheless, the philosophical truth is that a civilized society must always remain civilized even when provoked to the maximum.”
– New York Times, 1971
“You wanna make urban riot? Violent political campaign in your city? Then read this book… Not necesarilly applicable to your context, but hey at least you got the spirit. PS: The above actions may be legally considered as crime and severely punishable. Just don’t say I never warned you”
– Goodreads netizen, 2007
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