December 07, 2007	Friday	Ziqa'ad 26, 1428

SAO PAULO: Vera Magalhaes, a former leftist guerilla who took part in the 1969 kidnapping of the US ambassador to Brazil, has died in Rio de Janeiro.

Local media said she died of a heart attack at home on Tuesday after suffering a lung hemorrhage. She was 59.

Magalhaes was the only female member of the MR-8 guerrilla cell, which kidnapped US Ambassador Charles Burke Elbrick in September 1969. The incident was the most prominent guerrilla action during Brazil’s 1964-1985 military dictatorship.

Elbrick was released after 78 hours in exchange for 15 prisoners. An obituary in Folha de S.Paulo newspaper said Magalhaes seduced Elbrick’s driver in order to get information on his movements.

She was captured in 1970 in a clash in a slum, imprisoned and tortured. She was freed in a hostage exchange and lived in exile in several countries, including Cuba, before returning under an amnesty in 1979. She worked as an economist and sociologist.The kidnapping incident was later made into the Oscar-nominated film “Four Days in September” starring Alan Arkin as Elbrick.—Reuters