page_title: Tenentism
section_title: July 1924–February 1927: the second revolt and the Long March of the Prestes Column
hierarchical_section_title: Tenentism / July 1924–February 1927: the second revolt and the Long March of the Prestes Column
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Zentralbild/XIV, 13290/17, 16.1.1952 Luis Carlos Prestes, der den Kampf für Frieden und Demokratie in Brasilien leitet wird 54 Jahre alt
context_page_description: Tenentism was a political philosophy of junior army officers who contributed significantly to the Brazilian Revolution of 1930.
context_section_description: Two years later, on 5 July 1924, another group of army officers mounted a rebellion in São Paulo and Rio Grande do Sul. The date was chosen to honour the 1922 rebels; the uprising "was better prepared and was intended to bring down the Bernardes government". The formal leader was retired General Isidoro Dias Lopes, with others including Eduardo Gomes, Newton Estillac Leal, João Cabanas and Miguel Costa. The rebellion began well, with control of São Paulo being secured after the governor and forces loyal to him abandoned the city early on 9 July. The rebels in the city were put under siege by government forces, and prevented from linking up with other uprisings which were breaking out in places such as Bela Vista, Mato Grosso, Aracaju, Sergipe and Manaus. The city was then subjected to a several-week artillery and aerial bombardment, of which civilians bore the brunt. On 26 July, army aircraft dropped leaflets over the city warning the remaining civilians to leave so that loyalist forces would have a free hand against the rebels. "Isidoro's various attempts at securing an accord with the government that would at least give the rebels amnesty were rebuffed. The leaders understood that they would be wiped out, along with a good part of the city, if they stayed. On the night of 27 July they staged a careful withdrawal of 3,000 troops on thirteen trains, via the Northwest Railroad, toward Mato Grosso, where they hoped to hook up with sympathetic units". This withdrawal was executed so smoothly that it went unnoticed by the government forces until the morning. However, with their route to Mato Grosso blocked, the rebels retired to an area bordering Argentina and Paraguay close to Foz do Iguaçu.
  Having escaped into the interior, and joined by others from Rio Grande do Sul, they began a campaign as a guerrilla force led by Luís Carlos Prestes and Miguel Costa. They became known as the Prestes Column, and covered some 25,000 kilometres from October 1924 to February 1927 "as they roamed through the interior of the country seeking unsuccessfully to promote mass rebellion or at any rate to act as a moral gadfly to the nation's conscience". After losing significant numbers to desertion and sickness, escaping encirclement at Palmeira, Rio Grande do Sul in January 1925, making a successful stand at the Iguaçu Falls in February and "after some initial disagreements about strategy, the rebels adopted one that amounted less to a war of movement than a moving 'armed protest demonstration' that would serve as a constant call to action against the hated Bernardes. The idea was not to defeat the forces sent against them, much less the old objective of seizing power in Rio de Janeiro: the objective now was to stay alive, keep the column moving and seemingly invincible. In that, they succeeded as they moved through state after state from Mato Grosso to Maranhão and back, before seeking refuge in Bolivia in 1927".
  Regarding the 'Long March', Prestes subsequently wrote that "the tactics of swift marches, evasion as far as possible of contact with superior enemy forces and surprise attacks aimed at demoralizing the enemy and capturing arms and ammunition, demonstrated that in Brazilian conditions it was possible to stage a protracted struggle". 
  However, years later he was critical of the futility of his own strategy, writing that "I also defended the column's march tactics, claiming that they presented opportunities for recruiting new fighters. This, however, was not the case. The farmers sympathised with us for the simple reason that we were against the oppressors, they admired our heroism and devotion, but had no intention (with rare exceptions of some young people) of committing themselves to a struggle in whose success they could not believe".
caption: Luís Carlos Prestes
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