Prestes' daughter criticizes Lula and Eduardo Campos.

Leonardo Lucena_PE247 – “Governor Eduardo Campos (PSB) is a bourgeois politician.” This statement comes from Anita Leocácia, daughter of Luiz Carlos Prestes and Olga Benário. Amidst the likely candidacy of the state's chief executive and the fact that he is considered a rising new leader in Brazilian politics, the History professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) asserts that the “new” politicians considered leftists are more concerned with boosting the profits of financial capital than with popular reforms. Former president Lula (PT) also did not escape Anita's criticism, who ironically commented on the PT leader's administration. According to her, “with Lula, the people got used to receiving crumbs.”

“Governor Eduardo Campos (PSB) is just another bourgeois politician. He is doing everything he can to become a candidate and president of Brazil. He has no interest in popular reforms or social movements. He is just another candidate, like all the others,” the professor declared at a press conference in Recife, where she is launching the book “Luiz Carlos Prestes – The fight for a revolutionary party (1958-1990).”

“I don’t see a short-term change in the country’s politics. Social movements are still very weak. I particularly like the actions of the Landless Workers Movement (MST), but it has not yet won the support of the urban classes,” he added.

Acclaimed by most of the Brazilian population for having a government marked by income transfer to the poorest, former president Lula was also the target of criticism from the historian. “He ran three times and realized he would never be able to govern without the support of the ruling classes. So he made all that marketing change that we know. His friend (former minister José Dirceu, convicted in the Mensalão scandal) lived in Washington (USA) during the campaign in which he emerged victorious. With Lula, the worker got used to receiving crumbs,” she declared.

LUIZ CARLOS PRESTES (1898-1990) – In response to claims that Prestes had supported former president Getúlio Vargas (1930-45 and 51-54), the historian emphasized that her father never supported the ruler. “My father never agreed with Getúlio politically. He only foresaw the fall of fascism and saw Getúlio aligning himself with democratic forces. This is evidenced by the fact that after the end of World War II, Getúlio fell from power, but he authorized the functioning of the Communist Party (PCB),” she said.  

In turn, Getúlio decided to deport, in 1936, the left-wing activist Olga Benário, of Jewish origin, to a Nazi concentration camp in Germany, her country of origin, where she was imprisoned and killed in 1942. The communist acted alongside her husband, Prestes, in the Communist Uprising or Red Revolt of 1935, which occurred in November 35 and aimed to overthrow President Vargas. The attempted coup against Getúlio ended up paving the way for the president to expand his own powers to establish the Estado Novo (New State), a dictatorship that would last from 1937 to 1945.