On September 4, 1969, three months after taking his post as Ambassador of the United States to Brazil, Charles Burke Elbrick was kidnapped in Rio de Janeiro. Two radical resistance groups, the Ação Libertadora Nacional (National Liberation Action) and the Movimento 8 de Outubro (October 8th Movement), publicly claimed mutual responsibility for the kidnapping. In exchange for the life of the ambassador, they demanded the publication in national media of their manifesto and the release to Mexico of 15 political prisoners. The Brazilian military government begrudgingly acquiesced to the kidnappers' demands, and Ambassador Elbrick was released on September 9, 1969.
At the time of the kidnapping, the government of Brazil was run by a Military Junta comprised of Admiral Augusto Hamann Rademaker Grunewald, General Aurélio de Lyra Tavares, and Air Marshal Márcio de Sousa e Melo. Perceiving the kidnapping as a threat to public safety and an insult to the regime, the Military Junta proclaimed Institutional Acts numbers 13 and 14, which legalized the penalties of exile, imprisonment, or death of any persons deemed subversive to the nation's security.
Debates ensued in both Brazil and the United States on the rights of diplomatic representatives in foreign countries and the responsibilities of host nations, as well as the prudence of negotiations with militants. Some in the United States, like Senator Frank Church, looked on the event as the unfortunate consequence of the U.S. government's ties to an increasingly repressive regime. Ambassador Elbrick himself never revealed the identity of his kidnappers. In May 1970, during a medical visit to the United States, Ambassador Elbrick suffered a stroke. Though the ambassador recovered and remained in the Foreign Service until 1971, he never returned to Brazil.
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Four days in September [sound recording] : music from the Miramax motion picture. by 
Versões e ficções : o seqüestro da história by Gracias a la vida : memórias de um militante by Hércules 56 : o seqüestro do embaixador americano em 1969 by Memória política em doses : segundo caleidoscópio republicano : Elbrick: sequestradores e banidos by Below are select resources from the Library of Congress's collections. To explore more of the Library's manuscript and archival materials on Brazil-US relations during the kidnapping of American ambassador Charles Burke Elbrick, please visit the Library of Congress Online Catalog or search the Library's online finding aids.
