Rio Grande do Sul Revolt of 1924

Rio Grande do Sul Revolt of 1924
Part of Tenentism
Loyalist defenses in Itaqui
Date 28 October 1924 – 28 January 1925 Location Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil Result Loyalist victory Formation of the Prestes Column
Belligerents
Rebels Liberating Alliance Tenentist rebels	Brazil Brazilian Army  Rio Grande do Sul Military Brigade
Commanders and leaders
Assis Brasil Honório Lemes Juarez Távora Luís Carlos Prestes	Borges de Medeiros Eurico de Andrade Neves

The Rio Grande do Sul Revolt of 1924 was triggered by tenentist rebels from the Brazilian Army and civilian leaders from the Liberating Alliance on 28–29 October of that year. The civilians, continuing the 1923 Revolution, wanted to remove the governor of Rio Grande do Sul, Borges de Medeiros, while the military were against the president of Brazil, Artur Bernardes. After a series of defeats, in mid-November the last organized stronghold was in São Luiz Gonzaga. In the south, guerrilla warfare continued until the end of the year. From São Luiz Gonzaga, the remnants of the revolt headed out of the state, joining other rebels in the Paraná Campaign and forming the Miguel Costa-Prestes Column.

The "liberators" were the opposition to the hegemony of the Rio-Grandense Republican Party (PRR) in the state's politics. Their alliance with tenentism, a movement of national aspirations, was circumstantial. The tenentists' military authority, general Isidoro Dias Lopes, and the "civilian leader of the revolution", Joaquim Francisco de Assis Brasil, were not in Rio Grande do Sul. The operations were in charge of young officers trained in military science, like Juarez Távora, Siqueira Campos and Luís Carlos Prestes, and veteran leaders of Rio Grande do Sul's military tradition, such as Honório Lemes and Zeca Neto. Their enemies also combined regular units, the loyalists of the army and the Military Brigade, and irregulars, the "provisionals" (provisórios). Several PRR politicians, such as Osvaldo Aranha and Flores da Cunha, commanded government forces.

As in other conflicts in Rio Grande do Sul, cavalry was widely used and the temporary exile of rebels abroad was normal and commonplace. The initial uprisings were in Uruguaiana, São Borja, São Luiz Gonzaga and Santo Ângelo. Civilian and military governors were installed in the first three cities; their most controversial measures were the requisitions of goods and money. The rebels went on the offensive, but were unable to take Itaqui, whose loyalist garrison separated their territories. To the east, they were repelled when they tried to progress towards Ijuí and Alegrete and suffered a major defeat at Guaçu-Boi, on 9 November. In the south, the rebels continued a guerrilla campaign until their definitive expulsion to Uruguay; the last border incursion was in January 1925.

In the Missões region, the rebels concentrated in São Luiz Gonzaga, where captain Luís Carlos Prestes was designated commander in a letter from general Isidoro. The loyalists set up an "iron ring" of seven columns, in full numerical superiority, around the city. Prestes had to escape the siege to join the other rebels in Paraná, and in the process, the Prestes Column, as it would be known, began to take shape and employ its characteristic war of movement. The battle in Ramada, on 3 January, was the most violent in this phase. At the end of the month, the rebels entered Santa Catarina, and in April they joined the remnants of the revolt in São Paulo in Paraná. A community of exiles remained abroad, launching new revolts in 1925 and 1926. There is no consensus on the initial landmark of the Prestes Column (São Paulo, Santo Ângelo, São Luiz or Paraná). The memory of the revolt in Rio Grande do Sul today has its most notable public commemoration in Santo Ângelo.