She was born in Barnimstrasse women's prison in Berlin and was handed over to the care of her paternal grandmother, Brazilian Leocádia Prestes, at age 14 months.

Her mother Olga was sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp and from there to a former psychiatric hospital in Bernburg in 1942, where she was gassed.

In 1964, Prestes achieved a degree in Chemistry from the then "University of Brazil", now known as the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ).

In August 1972, she was indicted in Brazil for political activities, with the Conselho Permanente de Justiça para o Exército (the Army supreme court) sentencing her in absentia to 4 years and 6 months in prison.

In December 1975 Prestes earned a Doctorate in Political Economics from the Institute of Social Science in Moscow and four years later in September 1979, the Brazilian courts reduced Prestes's sentence by four years as part of a wider amnesty.