Luís Carlos Prestes

Luís Carlos Prestes (January 3, 1898 – March 7, 1990) was a Brazilian revolutionary, military officer, and politician who served as general secretary of the Brazilian Communist Party from 1943 to 1980 and as a senator for the Federal District from 1946 to 1948. He first achieved national prominence for his role in the 1924 tenentist revolt and in the subsequent march of the Prestes Column, which earned him the nickname The Knight of Hope.

Beginning in 1924, Prestes emerged as one of the principal leaders of an unsuccessful military revolt. After its defeat, he helped lead a force of rebel troops that later became known as the Prestes Column, which spent three years marching through the Brazilian interior in resistance to the federal government before going into exile in Bolivia.

Prestes later became general secretary of the Brazilian Communist Party, which advocated measures including suspension of payments on the national debt, nationalization of foreign-owned companies, and land reform. He was imprisoned after the failed communist uprising of 1935 and was later sentenced to 30 years in prison for ordering the execution of the teenager Elza Fernandes. Released after World War II, he briefly served in the Senate before returning to clandestine political activity after the Communist Party was banned.

In the 1980s, Prestes broke with the leadership of the Brazilian Communist Party, accusing it of abandoning Marxist-Leninist principles. He was removed from the party leadership in 1980 and expelled in 1984. In his final years, he supported Leonel Brizola in the 1989 presidential election, which was won by Fernando Collor de Mello.