Isabel Barreto Lobato

Barreto Lobato was born in the village of Bazartete, Portuguese Timor, in 1948. She married Nicolau dos Reis Lobato in a Catholic wedding ceremony at a chapel in Bazartete in 1972. The couple had one son, José Maria Barreto Lobato.

On 7 December 1975, Indonesia invaded East Timor shortly after the country unilaterally declared independence from Portugal. Barreto Lobato and other members of Fretilin's political leadership were captured by Indonesian troops.^[2][3] The next morning, Barreto Lobato and her colleagues were taken to Dili's waterfront wharf where they were shot by Indonesian forces and their corpses thrown into the harbor.^[2][3] Other individuals killed with Barreto Lobato during the mass execution included Rosa Bonaparte, Bernardino Bonaparte, and Francisco Borja da Costa, the composer of East Timor's national anthem.^[3]

Her husband Nicolau managed to escape to the mountains of the interior at the start of the invasion.^[1] Nicolau Lobato helped wage a guerrilla war against the Indonesian occupation, until he was killed in 1978 by Indonesian forces led by Lieutenant Prabowo Subianto.^[1]

The 24-year Indonesian occupation resulted in the deaths of an estimated 200,000 East Timorese.^[2][3][4]