Helenira Resende de Souza Nazareth

Helenira Resende de Souza Nazareth (19 January 1944 – 29 September 1972), also known by the code name Fátima and the nickname Preta, was a Brazilian activist and member of the armed resistance against the Brazilian military dictatorship. A member of the Communist Party of Brazil and the Araguaia guerrilla, she is officially considered a disappeared person due to her remains not being located, though it is widely accepted that she was killed by soldiers from the Brazilian Armed Forces in 1972.

Early life and education Resende was born on 19 January 1944 in Cerqueira César, a municipality in São Paulo, to Adalberto de Assis Nazareth and Euthália Resende de Souza Nazareth. At the age of four, the family moved to Assis, where Resende grew up. She attended the Instituto de Educação de Assis, where she was a co-founder of its student representative council, and played on its basketball team, as well as competing in the long jump.

Resende studied literature and philosophy at the University of São Paulo, where she was elected vice president of the National Union of Students (UNE). She became known by the nickname Preta . In 1967, Resende was arrested for the first time after she spraypainted "abaixo as leis da ditadura" on the walls of Mackenzie University. She was arrested for a second time during a protest in São Paulo in March 1968. Resende was sent to Pará shortly after officially joining the Communist Party. Under the code name Fátima, she joined the guerrilla's first detachment, Detachment A, which worked to organise an armed struggle in the area.

Death On 29 September 1972, Resende was among a group of guerrillas ambushed by Brazilian soldiers. The group, who had been on guard in a wooded area, were found by scouts from the Brazilian Armed Forces. Resende shot and killed one of the soldiers before shot in the leg by another soldier, whom she shot in return. Resende was captured by the soldiers and, after refusing to provide the locations of guerrillas in the area, was tortured to death with a bayonet. She was 28 at the time of her death.

Following Resende's death, her detachment was renamed in her honour.

In 2024, Resende was among fifteen former students of the University of São Paulo's Faculty of Philosophy, Languages and Human Sciences who had been murdered during the dictatorship to posthumously receive their graduation diplomas, as part of the university's "Diplomação da Resistência" project.