What was the Prestes Column?
Also known as Miguel Costa-Prestes Column, the Column was a revolt organized by lieutenants that traveled through Brazil between 1925 and 1927 fighting the troops of the governments of Artur Bernardes and Washington Luis during the First Republic. Along its trajectory, the members of the Column have covered more than 25 thousand kilometers in protest against the existing governments.
How did the Prestes Column come about?
The Prestes Column was the result of the tenentista movement, which emerged in 1922 due to the dissatisfaction of military personnel with the Brazilian government. Between 1921 and 1922, the electoral campaign was carried out to elect the new president who would take over the country in 1922. On the one hand, the candidate was ArthurBernardes; on the other side, there was Nilepiece (opposition candidate).
During this electoral process, the relationship between the military and the government, which represented the oligarchies of São Paulo and Minas Gerais, was eroded. First, false letters were circulated in which candidate Artur Bernardes criticized members of the army. The relationship worsened after the president
Epitacio Pessoa ordered the closing of the Clube Militar and the arrest of Hermes da Fonseca.This attitude had immediate negative repercussions and, a few weeks later, the Copacabana Fort Revolt in 1922. The lieutenants, as they became known, worked effectively until 1927 and, during this period, organized new revolts in different parts of Brazil, one of them being the Paulista Revolt of 1924.
The Paulista Revolt began on July 5, 1924 and was the first in a series of tenentist revolts that spread across Brazil that year. The tenentists, in general, defended the overthrow of the government of Artur Bernardes and the implantation of social, political and economic changes in Brazil.
the lieutenants occupied the capital of São Paulo for about three weeks, but due to pressure from the government forces attacking them, they chose to leave the city of São Paulo. The flight of tenentists from São Paulo led them to settle in Foz do Iguaçu, Paraná. The column was formed when lieutenants rebelled in Rio Grande do Sul, under the leadership of Luís Carlos Prestes, joined with the São Paulo lieutenants installed in Paraná.
The combination of the two forms started the Column and the march through the interior of Brazil in defense of its revolutionary ideals. The Prestes Column at that time had approximately 1,500 men and had some important names, in addition to Luís Carlos Prestes, such as Miguel Costa, Juarez Tavora and Isidoro Dias Lopes.
Ideologically speaking, the principles defended by the Prestes Column members were aligned with the tenentistas ideals. Historians Lilia Schwarcz and Heloisa Starling claim that Prestes Column members “demanded the secret ballot, the reform of public education, mandatory primary education and the moralization of politics. They also denounced the miserable living conditions and the exploitation of the poorest sectors”|1|.
Performance of the Prestes Column
After the joining of tenentista forces from São Paulo and Rio Grande do Sul, the Prestes column began its march on April 29, 1925. Shortly before the march, part of those involved was sent to Argentina with the aim of forming a network of external support for the group that would fight here in Brazil. This detachment would be led by Isidoro Dias Lopes.
From there, the Prestes column began a march that crossed a large part of Brazil. The reception of the members of the Prestes Column in the interior cities they passed through was diverse. While in some places they were received as savior heroes by the population; in others, they were received coldly and suspiciously because of the actions they performed.
Altogether, the column crossed territories that correspond to different Brazilian states: Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul, Goiás, Tocantins, Piauí, Bahia, Pernambuco, etc. The strategy of the Prestes Column members was to avoid open confrontations against government troops, especially when enemy forces were considerably large.
In late 1926, after more than a year of marching and fighting, members of the Prestes Column began to discuss the possibility of ending the march. First, the government of Artur Bernardes was ending and, furthermore, the Column had failed to create a political project to take power, and their struggle had not mobilized the population as expected.
Thus, on February 3, 1927, the members of the Prestes Column made official the laying down of their arms and went into exile in Bolivia. Luís Carlos Prestes left the column with the nickname “Knight of Hope” and became one of the great names in Brazilian popular struggle throughout the 20th century. Prestes, in 1930, assumed himself as a communist and, in the 1930s, he was involved in an attempt to take power in Brazil.
|1| SCHWARCZ, Lilia Moritz and STARLING, Heloisa Murgel. Brazil: a biography. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2015, p. 348.
*Image credits: CPDOC/FGV
By Daniel Neves
Graduated in History
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/o-que-e/historia/o-que-foi-a-coluna-prestes.htm
