Lieutenant-General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...

Urano Teixeira da Matta Bacellar (1947 – January 6, 2006) was a Brazilian soldier. He was born in

Bagé Bagé () is a city located in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. In 2020, its population was 121,335 in a total area of 4,096 km2. It was the seventeenth largest city in the state according to the 2011 census. The city was founded in 18 ...

in the

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * '' Our ...

of Rio Grande do Sul. He served for 39 years in the Brazilian Army and eventually rose to the rank of

. He was married and had two children. On September 1, 2005, he was selected to lead the military contingent of

MINUSTAH ) , leader_title = Head , leader_name = Sandra Honoré ( Special Representative of the Secretary-General) , status = Replaced by MINUJUSTH , formation = 1 June 2004 , websiteUN Peacekeeping: MINUSTAH

, the UN

peacekeeping Peacekeeping comprises activities intended to create conditions that favour lasting peace. Research generally finds that peacekeeping reduces civilian and battlefield deaths, as well as reduces the risk of renewed warfare. Within the United ...

force in

Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...

, replacing his fellow Brazilian,

Augusto Heleno Ribeiro Pereira Augusto Heleno Ribeiro Pereira (born 29 October 1947) is a Brazilian politician coup articulator and retired General of the Brazilian Army. He was military commander of the Amazon and Chief of the Department of Science and Technology of the Arm ...

. Graduated at the

Agulhas Negras Military Academy The ''Academia Militar das Agulhas Negras'' (AMAN, en, Military Academy of Agulhas Negras - named after the Agulhas Negras summit) is the biggest among several schools of formation of combatant officers of the Brazilian Army. It originated in ...

, he was a decorated officer. Having a great career, he was also a teacher at AMAN. He was nominated to lead the UN mission MINUSTAH in

. On January 7, 2006, General Bacellar was found dead, fallen from a chair on the balcony of his hotel room in

Port-au-Prince Port-au-Prince ( , ; ht, Pòtoprens ) is the capital and most populous city of Haiti. The city's population was estimated at 987,311 in 2015 with the metropolitan area estimated at a population of 2,618,894. The metropolitan area is defin ...

. State news agency

Agência Brasil Agência Brasil (ABr.) is the national public news agency, run by the Brazilian government. The agency was founded in 1990 and it's part of the public media corporation Empresa Brasil de Comunicação (EBC), created in 2007 to unite two governmen ...

said Lt. Gen. Urano Teixeira Da Matta Bacellar was the victim of "a firearms accident". Later that day, UN and Brazilian officials said that he appeared to have shot himself in the head, several days after national elections had been postponed for a fourth time. Bacellar was also a teacher of geography and of Brazilian Studies in military schools. He was 58 years old. An autopsy was also performed, to determine the exact cause of death and the calibre of the weapon that killed him. On January 12, 2006, both the UN and the Brazilian government announced suicide as the official cause of death. In January 2011, Diplomatic cables from 2005 and 2006 released by

WikiLeaks WikiLeaks () is an international non-profit organisation that published news leaks and classified media provided by anonymous sources. Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activist, is generally described as its founder and director and ...

in the

United States diplomatic cables leak The United States diplomatic cables leak, widely known as Cablegate, began on Sunday, 28 November 2010 when WikiLeaks began releasing classified cables that had been sent to the U.S. State Department by 274 of its consulates, embassies, and ...

, revealed that

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares with ...

President

Leonel Fernández Leonel Antonio Fernández Reyna () (born 26 December 1953) is a Dominican lawyer, academic, and was the 50th and 52nd President of the Dominican Republic from 1996 to 2000 and from 2004 to 2012. From 2016 until 2020, he was the President of th ...

suspected Bacellar had been assassinated by a group of Contras led by

Guy Philippe Guy Philippe (born 29 February 1968) is a convicted drug smuggler serving time in US federal prison. He had gained power in Haiti as a paramilitary leader, and had participated in the electoral process to become a political leader. He led the ...

, a former soldier and police chief and a Haitian anti-Aristide "rebel" leader that had been armed by the USA. The same cables also reveal that the

contras The Contras were the various U.S.-backed and funded right-wing rebel groups that were active from 1979 to 1990 in opposition to the Marxist Sandinista Junta of National Reconstruction Government in Nicaragua, which came to power in 1979 ...

, according to President Fernandez, had the mandate of creating chaos in Haiti and had even killed a Canadian and a Jordanian

member in the past and that the killing could have been a response to Bacellar's reluctance to use force in

's shanty town

Cité Soleil Cité Soleil ( ht, Site Solèy; English: ) is an extremely impoverished and densely populated commune located in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area in Haiti. Cité Soleil originally developed as a shanty town and grew to an estimated 200,000 ...

regardless of pressure from Washington and a pressure campaign by the Chamber of Commerce head Reginald Boulos and

André Apaid André Apaid, Jr. is a businessman in Haiti known for leading the Group of 184, a coalition which forced Jean-Bertrand Aristide from power in 2004 through a coup d'état in collaboration with the United States. According to Guy Philippe, Apaid an ...

, the latter a

sweatshop A sweatshop or sweat factory is a crowded workplace with very poor, socially unacceptable or illegal working conditions. Some illegal working conditions include poor ventilation, little to no breaks, inadequate work space, insufficient lighting, o ...

king in Haiti and both main figures in the civic front named Group 184 that played a main role in ousting President Aristide in the 2004 coup. His position as leader of the military contingent of

was temporarily filled by his deputy,

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the eas ...

an General Eduardo Aldunate Herman. On January 17, 2006, it was announced that Brazilian General

would be the permanent replacement for Bacellar as the head of the United Nations' Haiti military force. His body was returned to

Brasília Brasília (; ) is the federal capital of Brazil and seat of government of the Federal District. The city is located at the top of the Brazilian highlands in the country's Central-West region. It was founded by President Juscelino Kubitsche ...

to burial with full military honours in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of the same name, Brazil's List of Brazilian states by population, third-most populous state, and the List of largest citi ...

Awards

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bacellar, Urano 1947 births 2006 deaths Brazilian generals United Nations military personnel People from Bagé Suicides by firearm in Haiti