Isabel do Carmo ComL is a former founder and leader of the Portuguese terrorist organization, Brigadas Revolucionárias (BR), which took part in an armed struggle against the Portuguese government, both before and after the overthrow of the repressive '' Estado Novo'' regime. She was also the founder and leader of Partido Revolucionário do Proletariado (PRP), a political organization never formalized as a party and created to support the BR. She was held in pre-trial prison from 1978 to 1982. Carmo, a doctor and a University professor, has published extensively, on both medical and political issues.

Early life

Maria Isabel Augusta Cortes do Carmo was born in Barreiro, on the left bank of the River

Tagus The Tagus ( ; ; ) is the longest river in the Iberian Peninsula. The river rises in the Montes Universales between Cuenca and Teruel, in mid-eastern Spain, flows , generally westward, and empties into the Atlantic Ocean in Lisbon. Name T ...

to the southeast of the Portuguese capital of

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

, on 12 September 1940. She took the ferry to go to High School in Lisbon and later graduated from the Faculty of Medicine of the

University of Lisbon The University of Lisbon (ULisboa; ) is a public university, public research university in Lisbon, and Portugal's largest university. It was founded in 1911, but the university's present structure dates to the 2013 merger of the former Universit ...

. As a student and activist in the students' association of the Faculty of Medicine, she participated in student revolts in 1962, having been the first woman to speak at essentially male assemblies. After receiving a PhD from the same faculty, she practised medicine as an assistant physician at the

Hospital de Santa Maria Hospital de Santa Maria (; "Saint Mary's Hospital") is a public Central Hospital serving the Greater Lisbon area as part of the Northern Lisbon University Hospital Centre (CHULN), a State-owned enterprise. Santa Maria is the largest hospital in ...

in the north of Lisbon.

Political activity

Carmo's political activities began when she was 15, when she joined the youth organization of the

Movement of Democratic Unity The Movement of Democratic Unity () was a quasi-legal platform of Portuguese democratic organizations that opposed the authoritarian regime of António de Oliveira Salazar and was founded in October 1945. The defeat of the Fascist regimes in World ...

(MUD), a quasi-legal organization that opposed the ''Estado Novo''. In 1958, she took part in the campaign of the communist, , for the Presidency of the Republic. Vicente eventually withdrew in favour of

Humberto Delgado Humberto da Silva Delgado (Portuguese pronunciation: �ˈbɛɾtu dɛɫˈɡadu 15 May 1906 – 13 February 1965) was a General of the Portuguese Air Force, diplomat and politician. Early life and military career Delgado was born in Brogueira, To ...

. A year later she joined the

Portuguese Communist Party The Portuguese Communist Party (, , PCP) is a Communism, communist and Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist List of political parties in Portugal, political party in Portugal. It is one of the strongest List of communist parties, communist par ...

(PCP), where she was, in secret, a member of the leadership of the university sector and of the communist organization of doctors. In 1969 she became a member of the Portuguese Democratic Movement (MUD). This was a coalition of political parties formed to oppose the ''Estado Novo'' in the widely manipulated national and local elections. In the same year she went to Paris, where she lived between October 1969 and March 1970 together with

Carlos Antunes Carlos Carneiro Antunes (June 1938 – 23 January 2021) was a Portuguese terrorist and politician. He was, together with Isabel do Carmo, co-founder of the Brigadas Revolucionárias a Portuguese far-left terrorist organization that acted in Portuga ...

. At this time, after the 1968

Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia On 20–21 August 1968, the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was jointly invaded by four fellow Warsaw Pact countries: the Soviet Union, the Polish People's Republic, the People's Republic of Bulgaria, and the Hungarian People's Republic. The ...

made her disenchanted with the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, and becoming frustrated with the PCP's unwillingness to carry out armed activities, Carmo founded, with Carlos Antunes and Pedro Goulart, the ''Brigadas Revolucionárias/''Revolutionary Brigades (BR). The PCP leader

Álvaro Cunhal Álvaro Barreirinhas Cunhal (; 10 November 1913 – 13 June 2005) was a Portuguese communist revolutionary and politician. He was one of the major opponents of the dictatorial regime of the '' Estado Novo''. He served as secretary-general of the P ...

was also in Paris at this time. The first violent action by the BR took place on 7 November 1971 against the

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

facilities in Fonte da Telha, in

Costa da Caparica Costa de Caparica () is a Portuguese city and civil parish, located in the municipality of Almada along the western coast of the district of Setúbal. The total population in 2011 was 13,418, She would live together with Antunes, who died from COVID-19 in January 2021. They had a son and a daughter. In 1970, she was excluded from her position as an assistant at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon, by order of

PIDE The International and State Defense Police (; PIDE) was a Portuguese security agency that existed during the '' Estado Novo'' regime of António de Oliveira Salazar. Formally, the main roles of the PIDE were the border, immigration and emigrati ...

, Portugal's secret police. However, she continued to perform this position secretly and without remuneration, with the support of her professor – Galvão Telles. She was part of the executive of the ''

Ordem dos Médicos The Order of Physicians () is the public entity that serves as the regulatory and licensing body for physician, medical practitioners in Portugal. As a Professional Order (Portugal), professional order, it is responsible for licensing physicians ...

'' (Order of Physicians) until 1972. On December 31, 1972, the BR infiltrated the vigil of Capela do Rato, a protest organised by a group of Catholics who took a stand against the colonial war. The BR carried out a series of bombings in various locations in Lisbon. Two children decided to play with an object where a clock was visible, which eventually exploded in their hands. Their parents were humble workers. One child lost an eye and the other lost three fingers in the right hand. The father was a gardener and the mother was an illiterate maid. This outcome forced Isabel do Carmo to go underground so that she could keep on carrying out her revolutionary activities. The children and their parents never received any support or compensation from the BR. In October 1973, again together with Antunes, she founded ''Partido Revolucionário do Proletariado''/Revolutionary Party of the Proletariat (PRP). It was the BR's political arm. Despite its name, the PRP was not a legal party or an autonomous organization: all BR operatives were part of the PRP, but not all PRP militants were part of the BR. The PRP's main objective was to broaden the base of support and provide political protection for BR terrorist attacks. Unlike the BR, which, at first, still had some support among progressive Catholics, the PRP established its base among the more-radical far left whose ideology was

Revolutionary Socialism Revolutionary socialism is a political philosophy, doctrine, and tradition within socialism that stresses the idea that a social revolution is necessary to bring about structural changes in society. More specifically, it is the view that revo ...

. After the

Carnation Revolution The Carnation Revolution (), code-named Operation Historic Turn (), also known as the 25 April (), was a military coup by military officers that overthrew the Estado Novo government on 25 April 1974 in Portugal. The coup produced major socia ...

of April 1974, which overthrew the ''Estado Novo'', the PRP merged with BR, becoming a single entity — PRP/BR. This focused on political action, and, for many months, there were no bomb attacks or bank robberies. Later in 1975, during the so-called Hot Summer of political, social and military instability, the country was ruled by a communist government with the support of Operational Command of the Continent (COPCON), led by

Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho Otelo Nuno Romão Saraiva de Carvalho, Order of Liberty, GCL (; 31 August 1936 – 25 July 2021) was a Portuguese military officer. He was the chief strategist of the 1974 Carnation Revolution, and later became a terrorist leader. After the Re ...

. The PRP/BR aim was to have the extreme left play a dominant role in the Portuguese government. Meanwhile, Carmo edited PRP's newspaper ''Revolução'' (Revolution) until 1978. During that period reinforced with the far-left coup of 11 March 1975, Carmo and Carlos Antunes were increasingly important in the radicalization process, becoming prominent figures in the ''

Processo Revolucionário Em Curso The Ongoing Revolutionary Process (, PREC) was the period during the Portuguese transition to democracy starting after a failed right-wing coup d'état on 11 March 1975, and ended after a failed left-wing coup d'état on 25 November 1975. Th ...

'' (Ongoing Revolutionary Process – PREC). PRP/BR and Carmo were openly against free elections and neither she, PRP/BR, nor Antunes ran for elections. In March 1975, Carmo wrote a manifesto titled "No to elections, yes to the Socialist Revolution". At the same time she said to a weekly newspaper: "Never, anywhere in the world, has socialism been implemented through elections and we believe that through them, the bourgeoisie will never lose its privileges" The PRP/BR argued in a manifesto that in order to strengthen the alliance between the people and the

Armed Forces Movement 230px, A mural dedicated to the MFA, it reads: "Towards freedom. Long live the 25th of April!" The Armed Forces Movement (; MFA) was an organization of lower-ranking officers in the Portuguese Armed Forces. It was responsible for instigating th ...

, which had initiated the Carnation Revolution, it would be necessary to organize a huge revolutionary army to be formed by the military and members of grassroots organizations (workers, residents, farmers, etc.). The PRP/BR also established connections with other European terrorist organisations, such as the Spanish

ETA Eta ( ; uppercase , lowercase ; ''ē̂ta'' or ''ita'' ) is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the close front unrounded vowel, . Originally denoting the voiceless glottal fricative, , in most dialects of Ancient Greek, it ...

and the

Provisional Irish Republican Army The Provisional Irish Republican Army (Provisional IRA), officially known as the Irish Republican Army (IRA; ) and informally known as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary force that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland ...

. In October 1975 a new law was approved forcing the disarmament of political movements and the BR, in a press conference, announced that they were not accepting the law and would go underground and keep their arms. The BR became frustrated with the end of the revolutionary period and with the beginning of the consolidation of democracy and the preparation for Portugal's entry into the European Economic Community (EEC), and carried out a series of attacks and bank robberies. On 10th September 1975, Carmo and Antunes received, from a

Copcon The Comando Operacional do Continente (COPCON, ) was a military command for Portugal created by the Armed Forces Movement in the period following the revolution of 25 April 1974 and was dissolved after the failed far left coup of 25 November 1975. ...

official, 1000 machine guns diverted from the General Deposit of War Material, situated near

Loures Loures () is a city and a municipality in Portugal which is part of the Lisbon District, District and Lisbon Metropolitan Area, Metropolitan area of Lisbon. It is the fifth most populous municipality in the country, with a total population of 201, ...

, which were to be used to arm the BR as well as its supporters. Given the pressure exerted on public opinion, the Revolutionary Council demanded that Antunes and Carmo return the guns. They refused and decided that the BR should split from PRP and go underground to operate clandestinely and keep all weapons including the machine guns. Some BR weapons were later used by

Forças Populares 25 de Abril The Forças Populares 25 de Abril (; FP 25 de Abril or FP-25) was a far-left terrorist group operating in Portugal between 1980 and 1987, having been allegedly led by Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho. At the end of the judicial process known as "FUP/FP ...

. Although the use of lethal violence by the BR was not their primary target, some deaths and injuries occurred as a result of confrontations with security forces. Between 1975 and 1979, at least 3 people were killed and several were wounded: a policeman, a Policia Judiciária officer and José Plácido, a former PRP/BR member who was killed because he was collaborating with the authorities. PRP/BR activities involved bank robberies (or similar activities) whose nickname was "fund recoveries" as well as placing and detonating explosives, mostly on governmental buildings. Regarding the policeman, Carmo claimed she was never accused of his death. Regarding José Placido, she stated that she was not aware of it and distanced herself from it. Arrested in June 1978, and initially held in prison with her young son, Carmo was tried and sentenced twice in 1980 and 1982. The judge found that most of her crimes fell within the amnesty law approved by the parliament in1979. As a consequence, she was released in 1982. Antunes was released in the same year. She has always said that, apart from two of the members of PRP/BR who made a mistake when placing explosive devices and a passer-by who was accidentally killed by an explosion, no one died as a result of her activities. After Carmo`s imprisonment, many of the BR's members, led by Pedro Goulart, ended up joining

, the far-left terrorist group led by

who used lethal violence as a part of its intimidation strategy. In 1978 the bombing of a freight train in Mauritania, which caused the death of eight soldiers, opened a series of internal discussions and disputes inside the Brigadas Revolucionárias. The attack was claimed by the

Polisario Front The Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Río de Oro (Spanish language, Spanish: ; ), better known by its acronym Polisario Front, is a Sahrawi nationalism, Sahrawi nationalist liberation movement seeking to end the occupatio ...

but was organized by the Algerian Secret Services and carried out by BR militants. This was the first BR action intentionally meant to cause deaths. However, at that time most of the BR leaders, including Isabel do Carmo, were already in prison for bank robberies and denied knowledge of this action. In 1989, she became active in the campaign to give an amnesty to Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho, who was accused of being a founder and co-leader of the

, a terrorist organization responsible for 19 assassinations. Previously he had been a member of the Movement of Armed Forces, which had initiated the

and later he led the far-left attempted coup on 25 November 1975.

Later life

Later, Carmo returned to work at the Hospital de Santa Maria, where she became director of the

Endocrinology Endocrinology (from ''endocrine system, endocrine'' + ''wikt:-logy#Suffix, -ology'') is a branch of biology and medicine dealing with the endocrine system, its diseases, and its specific secretions known as hormones. It is also concerned with the ...

Service. She was also a professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon. She was founder of the Portuguese Society of Endocrinology, of the Portuguese Society of

Diabetology Diabetes mellitus, commonly known as diabetes, is a group of common endocrine diseases characterized by sustained high blood sugar levels. Diabetes is due to either the pancreas not producing enough of the hormone insulin, or the cells of the ...

and founder of the Portuguese Society for the Study of Obesity. She coordinated a study on the prevalence of ''

Anorexia nervosa Anorexia nervosa (AN), often referred to simply as anorexia, is an eating disorder characterized by Calorie restriction, food restriction, body image disturbance, fear of gaining weight, and an overpowering desire to be thin. Individuals wit ...

''. She has also worked at the Foundation for Science and Technology (''Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia''), an organization that evaluates and funds research activities in the

natural science Natural science or empirical science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer ...

s. She also has a private medical practice. In December 2020, Carmo contracted COVID-19 at the same time as her late husband, but recovered.

Awards and honours

*On 25 April 2004, on the occasion of the 30th Anniversary of the Carnation Revolution, Carmo was made a Commander of the

Order of Liberty The Order of Liberty, or the Order of Freedom (), is a Portuguese honorific civil order that distinguishes relevant services to the cause of democracy and freedom, in the defense of the values of civilization and human dignity. The order was cr ...

by President

Jorge Sampaio Jorge Fernando Branco de Sampaio (; 18 September 1939 – 10 September 2021) was a Portuguese lawyer and politician who was the 18th President of Portugal from 1996 to 2006. Sampaio was a member of the Socialist Party, a party which he ...

Publications

* ''Histórias que as Mulheres Contam – Testemunhos Reais'' (Stories Women Tell – Real Testimonials). 2015. *''A Luta Armada'' (Armed Struggle). 2018. * ''As Vozes Insubmissas- A história das mulheres e dos homens que lutaram pela igualdade dos sexos quando era crime fazê-lo'' (The story of women and men who struggled for sexual equality when it was a crime to do so). 2004 Carmo's medical publications have largely been related to dietary matters: *''Saúde em Tempo de Risco'', 1993 *''Vida, Vírus e Vícios'', 1994 *''A Vida por um Fio – Anorexia Nervosa'', 1994 *''Magros, Gordinhos e Assim-Assim'', 1997 *''Doenças do Comportamento Alimentar'', 2001 *''Saber emagrecer'', 2002 *''Porque não Consigo Parar de Comer'', 2003 *''Alimentação saudável, alimentação segura'' (with Sara Rodi), 2002 *''222 Perguntas e Respostas para Emagrecer e Manter o Peso de uma Forma equilibrada'', 2006 *''Refeições, Marcas e Calorias'', 2007 *''Mulher 50 + 10'' (co-author), 2007 *''Os Alimentos, e Mitos que nos engordam'', 2008 *''Gorduchos e redondinhas'' (co-author), 2012 *''Pensar perder o peso que pesa'', 2013

References

Sources

* * * * ** * {{DEFAULTSORT:Carmo, Isabel do 1940 births Living people People from Barreiro, Portugal Portuguese communists Portuguese prisoners and detainees Portuguese revolutionaries Portuguese women physicians People charged with terrorism 20th-century Portuguese women physicians 21st-century Portuguese women physicians 20th-century Portuguese physicians 21st-century Portuguese physicians