Blackwell Reference Online

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Brazilian communist Irineu Luís de Moraes, better known as “Índio,” was one of the most important militants of São Paulo's interior. His life was dedicated to organizing and defending the rural population. In the 1930s he joined the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB) and years later moved to Ribeirão Preto in order to establish the PCB in that region. In 1945 he organized the Peasant League of Dumont, the first in Brazil. At the end of the 1940s he had his first experience of armed struggle in the north of Paraná. Irineu sometimes disagreed with the direction taken by the PCB, complaining of its inadequate support of the agrarian question and its “distance” from people. After the 1964 coup, Irineu was arrested many times. In 1969, while participating in Marighella's National Liberation Alliance, he was tortured almost to the point of death and abandoned in a train. Later, he was condemned to two years in prison. Liberated in 1974, he returned to PCB activities, finally leaving the party in 1986. The following year he entered the Workers' Party, and then the Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB), which was a splinter group from the PCB. SEE ALSO: Brazil, Labor Struggles ; Brazil, Peasant Movements and Liberation Theology ; Ligas Camponesas ( 2006 ) Characters, Trajectories and Histories of the National Armed Forces Liberation . Dissertation . Campinas : Unicamp . Available at ... log in or subscribe to read full text