Porto Alegre, 1898 – Rio de Janeiro (Brasil), 1990

By Ivana Jinkings

Legendary commander of the march that traversed Brazil from 1924 to 1927—known to history as the Prestes Column—Luiz Carlos Prestes became globally recognized as the Knight of Hope. Persecuted by the Estado Novo dictatorship (1937-1945) under Getúlio Vargas and later by the military dictatorship (1964-1989), Prestes served as the general secretary of the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB) and its main leader for nearly half a century.

Born in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, on January 3, 1898, Prestes was the son of Army engineering captain Antonio Pereira Prestes and schoolteacher Leocádia Felizardo Prestes. At the age of five, his family moved to Rio de Janeiro, where he attended primary school in the Botafogo neighborhood. After his father’s death in 1908, Prestes entered the Military School of Realengo in Rio de Janeiro in 1916, graduating as an engineer at 18.

The Column

In 1922, just two years into his military career, Prestes participated in preparations for the first uprising by tenentes (junior officers) seeking political and social reforms. As punishment, he was transferred to Rio Grande do Sul. In 1924, another tenentista movement arose in São Paulo but was quickly suppressed by government forces. In October of the same year, Prestes, now a captain, led a group of rebels in Santo Ângelo, Rio Grande do Sul, to support the São Paulo forces. He left the Army and, with his former comrades from the Railway Battalion, set out from Rio Grande do Sul to join São Paulo forces led by Miguel Costa (1885–1959) in Foz do Iguaçu. Thus began the Prestes-Costa Column, later known simply as the Prestes Column.

The column marched across 13 states between December 27, 1924, and February 3, 1927, covering approximately 25,000 kilometers by foot and horseback. The group aimed to expose the country’s extreme poverty and backwardness and called for radical change. Their efforts sought to weaken the political and military grip of President Artur Bernardes (1875–1955), who ruled under a state of siege throughout his term, and to denounce the injustices of the Old Republic (1889–1930). Despite being pursued relentlessly, the column remained undefeated in numerous engagements. By 1927, reduced to just over 600 men and low on supplies, they opted for exile, marking the end of the longest revolutionary march in Brazilian history and cementing Prestes’ legendary status.

From the Column to Communism

On February 3, 1927, between 400 and 500 remnants of the Prestes Column departed for Bolivia. Prestes settled in La Guaíba, where, in December, the Communist Party of Brazil (PCB) sent its secretary-general, Astrojildo Pereira (1890–1965), to meet him. Disguised as a journalist, Pereira brought books by Marx, Engels, and Lenin, which influenced Prestes’ socialist vision. By April 1928, Prestes moved to Argentina, where he deepened his studies of Marxism and became friends with prominent communists Rodolfo Ghioldi and Abraham Guralski.

In 1930, Prestes clandestinely returned to Porto Alegre, meeting twice with Getúlio Vargas, then governor of Rio Grande do Sul, who sought his support for the Liberal Alliance’s presidential campaign. Prestes refused, mistrusting Vargas and his movement. He formalized his political break with tenentismo through the Manifesto of May, advocating a revolution against imperialist and landowning elites. When Vargas seized power later that year, Prestes publicly criticized him.

In 1931, facing difficulties in Argentina, Prestes moved to Montevideo, Uruguay. Later invited to Moscow by the Communist International, he worked as an engineer while deepening his study of Marxist-Leninist theory. In 1934, he returned clandestinely to Brazil with German communist Olga Benário, who would become his partner, to organize a socialist revolution.

The 1935 Uprising

Returning to Brazil in April 1935 under false identities, Prestes became honorary president of the National Liberation Alliance (ANL), a coalition of reformist tenentes, communists, socialists, and labor leaders. The ANL organized the Communist Uprising, which began on November 23, 1935, in Natal, where revolutionaries briefly formed a governing junta. Similar uprisings in Recife, Olinda, and Rio de Janeiro were swiftly suppressed. Prestes and his wife Olga were arrested in 1936. Olga, pregnant, was deported to Nazi Germany, where she was later executed in 1942. Their daughter, Anita Leocádia, was born in prison and rescued by Prestes’ mother.

Prestes remained imprisoned for nine years. Efforts by his lawyer and international solidarity campaigns eventually secured his release in 1945.

Years of Legality

Following World War II and the defeat of fascism, Prestes was released under an amnesty decree. In 1945, he was elected to the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, receiving the highest vote tally in Brazil. The PCB gained significant traction, growing to 200,000 members. However, by 1947, amid Cold War repression, the PCB was banned, and Prestes went underground again.

During this period, the PCB played a leading role in Brazilian cultural and political life. Figures like Graciliano Ramos, Oscar Niemeyer, and Candido Portinari joined its ranks. Despite internal divisions, Prestes remained a steadfast advocate for socialism.

Exile and Final Years

After the 1964 military coup, Prestes went into exile in the Soviet Union. Returning to Brazil in 1979 during the political opening, he was warmly received as a hero. However, growing tensions within the PCB led him to resign as secretary-general in 1983. In his later years, he supported leftist causes and candidates, including Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 1989.

Prestes passed away in Rio de Janeiro on March 7, 1990, at 92. His funeral became a massive public expression of mourning for a revolutionary who dedicated his life to the dream of a better world.