Franklin Martins
Encyclopedia
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
ian journalist
Journalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
, currently serving as Press Secretary for the government of president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva , known popularly as Lula, served as the 35th President of Brazil from 2003 to 2010.A founding member of the Workers' Party , he ran for President three times unsuccessfully, first in the 1989 election. Lula achieved victory in the 2002 election, and was inaugurated as...
of Brazil.
He started working as a journalist at 15, as an intern in the pro-Vargas
Getúlio Vargas
Getúlio Dornelles Vargas served as President of Brazil, first as dictator, from 1930 to 1945, and in a democratically elected term from 1951 until his suicide in 1954. Vargas led Brazil for 18 years, the most for any President, and second in Brazilian history to Emperor Pedro II...
newspaper Última Hora
Última Hora
Última Hora is a Spanish language newspaper published in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico. The newspaper was founded on July 26, 1996, as Dos, Enlace de Culturas by Benjamin Galvan Gomes. The name was changed to Ultima Hora on November 13, 1998...
.
At 20, as a student of Economical Sciences at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (then University of Guanabara), Franklin was elected chairman of the Student's Executive (DCE) and, soon after, vice-chairman of the Metropolitan Union of Students, in Rio de Janeiro. By then, Martins approached then fellow student leader José Dirceu
José Dirceu
José Dirceu de Oliveira e Silva is a Brazilian politician.He participated in a revolutionary armed group following the Brazilian military coup of 1964, and was exiled in 1969. He returned in 1980 and was active politically, his highest post was as the chief-of-staff to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's...
, who was to become a founding member of the Workers Party and a grey eminence
Grey Eminence
Grey Eminence: A Study in Religion and Politics is a book by Aldous Huxley published in 1941. It is a biography of François Leclerc du Tremblay, the French monk who served as advisor to Cardinal de Richelieu. He was also known as Father Joseph and as l'éminence grise; that phrase originally...
behind Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva , known popularly as Lula, served as the 35th President of Brazil from 2003 to 2010.A founding member of the Workers' Party , he ran for President three times unsuccessfully, first in the 1989 election. Lula achieved victory in the 2002 election, and was inaugurated as...
.
As a youth, Martins was not only a student leader but after the 1964 coup d'état in Brazil, engaged in armed struggle and urban guerrilla. In the communist group MR-8, he was known as Valdir (codename). During the military dictatorship, he had a prominent role within the movements which fought against the regime. The acts included bank robbery
Bank robbery
Bank robbery is the crime of stealing from a bank during opening hours. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reporting Program, robbery is "the taking or attempting to take anything of value from the care, custody, or control of a person or persons by force or threat of...
(then called revolutionary expropriation by the guerrilla rhethorics) and assaults on police and military. The amount was used to buy weapons and bribe authorities to release fellow militants. Franklin Martins was held in prison between October and December 1968, being released on the eve of Institutional Act #5, which dissolved the Congress, and institutionalized censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
and torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
in Brazil.
In September 1969, he joined and led the joint group of the MR-8 and the National Action for Liberation (ALN) which kidnapped the US ambassador Charles Burke Elbrick
Charles Burke Elbrick
Charles Burke Elbrick, , was a United States diplomat and career foreign service officer. During his career, he served three ambassadorships in various parts of the world, in addition to many other minor postings.Elbrick was the son of Charles Elbrick and his Irish wife, Lillian Burke...
. The act was carried to force the junta
Military dictatorship
A military dictatorship is a form of government where in the political power resides with the military. It is similar but not identical to a stratocracy, a state ruled directly by the military....
to set free 15 political prisoner
Political prisoner
According to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, a political prisoner is ‘someone who is in prison because they have opposed or criticized the government of their own country’....
s. For taking part in the kidnapping, Franklin Martins is still denied entrance in the United States, even in an official state position (along as Fernando Gabeira
Fernando Gabeira
Fernando Paulo Nagle Gabeira is a Brazilian politician, author and journalist. He has been a federal deputy for the State of Rio de Janeiro since 1995....
, who was also involved).
Martins lived in Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
, Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
and France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, where he graduated at the École de Sciences Sociales of the University of Paris
University of Paris
The University of Paris was a university located in Paris, France and one of the earliest to be established in Europe. It was founded in the mid 12th century, and officially recognized as a university probably between 1160 and 1250...
. While in Cuba, in the Pinar del Río
Pinar del Río
Pinar del Río is a city in Cuba. It is the capital of Pinar del Río Province.Inhabitants of the area are called Pinareños.Neighborhoods in the city include La Conchita, La Coloma, Briones Montoto and Las Ovas.-History:...
province, he attended guerrilla lessons, learning to operate weapons, explosives and military tactics
Military tactics
Military tactics, the science and art of organizing an army or an air force, are the techniques for using weapons or military units in combination for engaging and defeating an enemy in battle. Changes in philosophy and technology over time have been reflected in changes to military tactics. In...
.
After the general amnesty
Amnesty
Amnesty is a legislative or executive act by which a state restores those who may have been guilty of an offense against it to the positions of innocent people, without changing the laws defining the offense. It includes more than pardon, in as much as it obliterates all legal remembrance of the...
proclaimed in Brazil in 1979, Franklin Martins returned home and resumed work as a journalist. Ironically, he eventually went to work at the Globo TV network, one of the main supporters of the military regime. In 1996, he became political commentator of the broadcast news, Jornal Nacional
Jornal Nacional
Jornal Nacional is a Brazilian news program aired by Rede Globo since September 1, 1969. It was the first news program broadcast live by a television network throughout Brazil.-History:...
and Jornal da Globo
Jornal da Globo
Jornal da Globo is the late night news show broadcast by Brazilian Globo Network. It doesn't have a fix starting time, but usually airs after midnight....
. In May 2006, he was suddenly dismissed by the news director, Ali Kamel.
After a brief stay at rival Bandeirantes
Bandeirantes
The bandeirantes were composed of Indians , caboclos , and some whites who were the captains of the Bandeiras. Members of the 16th–18th century South American slave-hunting expeditions called bandeiras...
network, Martins was called by president Lula to head the Department of Social Communication, a ministry-rank post equivalent to Press Secretary. One of his main projects developed in this position was the creation of TV Brasil
TV Brasil
TV Brasil is a Brazilian non-profit public broadcasting television network launched on December 2, 2007 at noon. Although TV Cultura was the first public broadcasting channel in the country, TV Brasil is the first launched by the federal government.-History:...
, the first public TV network in the nation (although formally state-owned).
External links
- Pattern of Terror. Time.com
- Conexão Política (personal website) (in Portuguese)
- Manifesto released by the kidnappers of US ambassador - 1969. (written by Martins)