Movie: Four Days in September — O Que É Isso, Companheiro? (1997)

Four Days in September depicts the incident when the MR-8, a radical left-wing group in Brazil, kidnapped Charles Elbrick, the American ambassador in Brazil, in September 1969, and held him hostage for four days while demanding the release of 15 of their comrades who were behind bars. The memoirs of Fernando Gabeira—who was the mastermind of this event and later became active as a journalist and politician—were published in 1979, and were the basis of this movie. He is an influential person today, serving as a congressman in Rio de Janeiro since 1995. The MR-8 was mainly formed by young and middle-class people, university students, and the intelligentsia. At first, the goals of the MR-8 were to bring down the military administration that controlled Brazil in those days, advocate for Marxism, and establish an administration that allowed freedom for the people. There is a scene in the movie where a die-hard revolutionary who fought against Franco in the Spanish Civil War is brought in to assist this shaky “wannabe revolution by inexperienced children”; you can see the connection between Spain and South America in those days.

Between the 1960s and 70s, military authorities seized power in many countries in South America. In Brazil’s neighbor Argentina, the warfare between the military regime and guerillas intensified in the 1960s. In 1973, Juan Perón, who had escaped to Spain, was re-elected as president and returned to his home country Argentina, but Argentina again fell into chaos when Perón died a year later. In 1976, General Jorge Rafael Videla rallied a coup d’état, and once again a dictatorship was established in Argentina. The Videla administration intensified oppression of the people, and severely persecuted Peron followers and left-wingers in the “Dirty War” by enlisting neighboring military regimes.

As a result of the 1970 Chilean presidential election, a socialist administration led by President Allende was born in Chile. This socialist administration was established as a result of a democratic election, but this administration was unstable. In 1973, in the midst of the social chaos, General Augusto Pinochet—who was supported by the U.S.—led a coup d’état with his military council, and Pinochet established a military dictatorship system in 1974. Pinochet’s military government aggressively suppressed any anti-establishment people, and this time is also called the “Dirty War.”

In Bolivia, the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement (MNR) led a civilian revolution in 1952, and carried out social as well as economic reformation, but in 1964, MNR fractured, and a military leader led a coup d’état and ended the revolutionist administration.

A new constitution was created in Brazil in 1946, but democracy didn’t quite take hold, and political and economic instability continued, like in other South American countries. In 1964, Colonel Castelo Branco—supported by the U.S.—established a military dictatorship by means of a coup d’état. The period of rapid economic growth during this time is known as the “Brazilian Miracle,” but the violation of human rights by the military regime became a huge problem. This is the backdrop for Four Days in September.

Earlier in history, South America, which had previously been the territory of Spain or Portugal, became independent. This happened during the time the Napoleonic Wars were happening in Europe, when France, led by Napoleon, attacked Spain and Portugal, allowing the ideas of freedom from the French Revolution to spread into South America. However, in South America, even after their independence and gradual transition to republic governments, aristocrats and big land owners still remained, and there were problems such as there being a big disparity between the rich and poor, or discrimination between Western European descendents and native people. Also, the governments often became a dictatorship or military administration. Those who opposed such autocratic governments chose Marxism as a guiding principle.

Since at that time, the U.S. was fighting the Soviet Union in the Cold War, the U.S. was very afraid of the threat of communism spreading throughout South America. Thus, the U.S. supported autocratic administrations that oppressed nationalists who tended to adopt Marxism. When choosing between communism and autocracy, America—who claimed to be an advocate for freedom—chose autocracy that oppressed the rights of the people. On the other hand, people wishing for freedom chose Marxism as their guiding principle. Nowadays it is unbelievable that Marxism could grant freedom as it claimed, but to a South American nationalist at the time, the U.S. was a symbol of the big landowner and of the capitalism that exploited the poor, and was allied to the terrible autocracy that protected the rich. The U.S., which tried to repel South American nationalists by supporting dictatorships, became hated all over the world.

In this movie, the way of depicting the diplomat Charles Elbrick is very favorable. He is prepared for the possibility that he could be killed, and so speaks out—“I as an individual”—against the U.S. government policy. He also expresses that the involvement of the U.S. in the Vietnam War was a mistake. The author Fernando Gabeira, who burned with passion for a social revolution back in 1969, later formally acknowledged the mistake he had made by kidnapping the ambassador. Fernando Gabeira was ordered to execute Charles Elbrick, but this movie shows Gabeira struggling with this order.

Before being an ambassador in Brazil, Charles Elbrick was positioned in Yugoslavia. Unlike people in South America, people in Yugoslovia—an Eastern European satellite country of the Soviet Union—believe that communism steals freedom from the people. The Soviet Union suppressed the Hungarian Revolution and the 1968 Prague Spring. When Yugoslavia’s leader Tito didn’t completely conform to the Soviet Union, it is said that he asked Charles Elbrick, the U.S. ambassador at the time, “What will the U.S. do if the same thing happens to Yugoslavia now?” It is said that Charles Elbrick replied, “We will help protect Yugoslavia’s independence and dignity. Do you need our help now?” Tito then said something like, “We do not need your help now, but thank you for your words of support.” Soon after this, Charles Elbrick moved to Rio de Janeiro and became the ambassador in Brazil, and was kidnapped by the MR-8.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War in the 1980s, Marxism was no longer a threat to the U.S., and the U.S. policies toward South American countries dramatically changed. The autocratic nations in South America were no longer a necessary evil for the U.S.

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