Luís Carlos Prestes

Luís Carlos Prestes ( born January 3, 1898 in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul; † 7 March 1990 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil ) was the leader of the 1920 rebellion tenente and General Secretary of the Communist Party of Brazil (PCB).

Life

Prestes was a graduate of the Military Academy Academia Militar das Agulhas Negras in Resende, which he left in 1919 as a lieutenant. Known as the "Knights of hope," he introduced, now captain, with 1,500 men, the Coluna Prestes against the oligarchs, which dominated the old Brazilian Republic. 750 died there of cholera.

In 1928, he held in Bolivia on, dealt with Marxism and came into contact with the Argentine communists Rodolfo Ghioldi and Abraham Guralski of the Comintern. In 1931 he traveled to recently stopover in Brazil to Moscow on.

In 1934, he was together with Olga Benario that he had met in Moscow, on orders from the Comintern sent back to Brazil, there to prepare a revolution. In Rio de Janeiro they met Elise and Arthur Ewert, and seven more from the Soviet Union sent revolutionaries.

The coup of November 27, 1935 against the dictatorial regime of President Getúlio Vargas failed. Benario and Prestes and dive under a wave of persecution against leftists began. Elza Fernandes (1915-1936), wife of the Secretary General of the Communist Party of Brazil, Antonio Maciel Bonfim, was suspected to be the traitor, as they repeatedly arrested and released and then getting someone was arrested. The Communists also Prestes, decided to eliminate the " traitor " and murdered by strangulation. Last Prestes and Olga Benario were arrested; Benario extradited to Germany. She gave birth to his child Anita Leocádia Prestes 1936 in Berlin.

Jorge Amado wrote in 1945 a pamphlet to Prestes liberation, which became widespread and led to his pardon in the same year. From 1943 to 1980 he was president of the Communist Party of Brazil, 1946-1948 Senator of the Federal District. 1982 came from Prestes from the Communist Party and became a member of the Partido Democrático Trabalhista, a social-democratic oriented party. Since 1951, Prestes was living with Mary, later Maria Prestes. Mary already had two sons, Pedro and Paulo. The marriage with Prestes come further 7 children: João, Pink, Ermelinda, Luiz Carlos, Zoia, Mariana and Yuri. Prestes and Mary lived together 40 years, until the death of Luiz Carlos Prestes.

Writings

• Olga Benario, Luiz Carlos Prestes: The Indomitable. Correspondence from prison and concentration camp. Edited by Robert Cohen. Wallenstein, Göttingen 2013, ISBN 978-3-8353-1327-9.