Passos's intense activism made him one of the most persecuted anarchists by the authorities. After the "tenentista" revolt of Copacana Fort in July 1922, "O Trabalho", the Civil Construction Workers Union journal in which Passos was an active collaborator, was closed by the repression like many other anarchist and labor periodicals. In 1923, under police persecution, Passos resigned the Civil Construction Workers Union Executive Committee and left to help the local unions of Paraná, but returned to Rio in time to help refound the anarchist Rio de Janeiro Workers' Federation (FORJ). Following the Paulista Revolt of 1924, in which some labor leaders took part, the Brazilian Congress declared a state of siege for sixty days in the Federal Capital, the state of Rio de Janeiro, and the state São Paulo, authorizing the President Artur Bernardes to extend it to other states. Rio de Janeiro police arrested Passos and other anarchists who gathered the night that the São Paulo revolt broke out. The repression closed unions and labor periodicals. Dozens of anarchists and syndicalists were jailed or deported.