Jefferson Cardim de Alencar Osorio
Jefferson Cardim de Alencar Osório (17 January 1912 – 1995) was a Brazilian Army colonel who was purged from the army after Brazil’s 1964 coup (AI-1).
He came from a military family. His father was Roberto de Alencar Osório, a Brazilian Navy officer, and his mother was Corina Cardim de Alencar Osório. His political views put him at odds with the new ruling generals. One of his persecutors was Ernesto Geisel, who would later lead Brazil as a dictator from 1974 to 1979.
Osório helped start the first armed response against the military regime, in an episode known as the Três Passos guerrilla. He is considered by many to be one of the first victims of the repression that would become Operation Condor.
After leaving the Army, he wanted to answer the coup with force. He met Leonel Brizola in Uruguay and found support from Brizola’s network. He gathered weapons and entered Brazil near the border towns of Rivera and Santana do Livramento. His plan was to travel through the south and inspire people to revolt and overthrow Castello Branco’s government.
His first action was on 26 March 1965 in Três Passos, Rio Grande do Sul, where he and about 20 supporters seized a military police barracks and broadcast a manifesto from a local radio. They then moved north and faced an army of about 5,000 soldiers. The next day, near Medianeira in Paraná, his group surrendered. Osório was tortured and imprisoned, accused of killing a sergeant during the Medianeira engagement.
In 1968 he escaped from prison with his 15-year-old son and became a political refugee, first in Mexico and later in Algeria, using an Algerian passport. He then lived in Uruguay with his Uruguayan wife.
At an international conference, Salvador Allende invited him to participate in his government in Chile. Osório accepted and left Montevideo by car with his son. On 11 December 1970 he landed in Argentina after crossing the Uruguay–Argentina border by ferry. He was arrested and accused of drug trafficking in a case treated as false. The operation was monitored by the Brazilian military attaché in Buenos Aires. The three travelers were interrogated and tortured as authorities hunted opponents of Peron or the Tupamaros.
Two days later, the Uruguayan nephew was released, but Osório and his son were sent back to Brazil on a flight carrying a Brazilian minister. A crew member recognized Osório and informed his mother that he was returning. After returning to Brazil, he and his son were tortured; the son was released on 20 January 1971. Osório remained in prison until 2 November 1977.
Jefferson Cardim de Alencar Osório died in 1995.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 20:46 (CET).