The most influential Communist in the WesternHemisphere, Brazil’s Luis Carlos Prestes, last week won the right toreappear in public. A Rio judge struck down a warrant for Prestes’”preventive” arrest, which has kept him underground for ten years. Thisweek Prestes is supposed to come out of hiding and sign the judge’sterms for his conditional freedom (e.g., he must report twice a month)while he awaits trial—months hence, if ever—on charges of sedition.
The court order ended a curious game of hide-and-seek in which Presteswas often pursued but never quite caught— perhaps because of the600,000 votes that he and his followers reportedly control. He was seenat times disappearing over the Bolivian border, leaving for Moscow, orholed up in Sao Paulo running a strike. His manifestoes appeared in the40 newspapers and magazines that Brazil’s Communists put out despitethe party’s technically illegal status.
For Old Revolutionary Prestes, black-eyed, bony and frail at 60, workingin the open will be a novelty. More than 30 years ago, as a young armyofficer, he led a column of 1,500 fanatic men who staged a legendary16,000-mile retreat through Brazil’s jungled backlands after anattempted revolution by army left-wingers had flopped. He then fled toRussia, worked as a hydroelectric engineer, became a member of theexecutive committee of the Communist International. Back in Brazil in1935, Prestes sparked another insurrection; his men rose in the nightand slit the throats of sleeping loyalist soldiers. He failed again andwent to prison for nine years. Released, and playing the martyr’s roleto the hilt, he was elected Senator, but his loyalties remained whollyRed. “If Brazil should fight Russia,” he said, “I would form guerrillasand together with my followers I would fight for Russia.”
Fortnight ago, from underground, Prestes proclaimed a popular-front”alliance of all national forces in the fight against North Americanimperialism,” and promised an “enthusiastic campaign” for the electionof all “nationalist democratic candidates” in October’s congressionalelections. The thought of Prestes’ votes whetted political thirsts inCongress; five days later the judge who has jurisdiction over Prestes’case decided that the Communist leader “does not intend to flee fromapplication of the penal law,” and revoked the arrest order. Aboveground, Prestes will probably strive for re-establishment of Braziliandiplomatic relations with Russia, legality for his party, increasedmembership. During his last period of freedom, from 1945 to 1947, hebuilt membership from 900 to 130,000, making Brazil’s Communist Partythe fifth biggest outside the Iron Curtain.