Luis Carlos Prestes

Born Jan. 3, 1898, in Porto Alegre. Leader in the Brazilian and international labor movement. Member of the Brazilian Communist Party (BCP) since 1934.

The son of a military serviceman, Prestes received a higher military education. From 1918 to 1924 he served as a captain of engineers in the Brazilian Army and conducted revolutionary work among the soldiers and officers. From 1924 to 1927 he directed the armed struggle of the democratic forces against the dictatorship of A. Bernardes. He spent the years from 1927 to 1931 in emigration in Bolivia, Argentina, and Uruguay; he had close ties with the Communist parties of these countries and with the South American Bureau of the Comintern Executive Committee. From 1931 to 1934, Prestes was in the Soviet Union. At the Seventh Congress of the Comintern, in 1935, he was elected a member of its Executive Committee.

In 1935, Prestes organized an uprising of the Brazilian people against the dictatorship of G. Vargas, serving as the commander of the revolutionary army of the National Liberation Alliance and as honorary president of the alliance. After the uprising was suppressed, he was arrested and spent the years from 1936 through 1945 in prison. In 1943 he became a member of the Central Committee of the BCP, and in 1945 a member of the Executive Commission of the Central Committee of the BCP and general secretary of the Central Committee of the BCP. Also in 1945 he was elected senator. From 1947 to 1958, after the BCP had been banned, he worked underground. Beginning in 1964, after the reactionary coup d’etat, he was again forced to work underground. He was sentenced in absentia to 14 years imprisonment. In 1973, Prestes was awarded the Order of the October Revolution.