Palácio da Cova da Moura

On the morning of 26 April 1974, a force of paratroopers took Caxias Prison. The National Salvation Junta wanted to distinguish between those imprisoned “for ideological reasons” and those accused of common crimes — an idea of General António de Spínola that was hard to put into practice — and the prisoners replied “All of us or none” (ou todos ou ninguém). Faced with the deadlock, Colonel Dias de Lima, Spínola’s aide-de-camp, came to Cova da Moura to consult the Junta. He returned to Caxias at five minutes to midnight, with the news that the prisoners would be released “in their entirety and immediately”.¹

The release began at 00:30 on 27 April, before thousands of people. Among those who walked out were the journalists Helena Neves and Elvira Nereu, and Manuela Gil, an office worker sentenced to two years “for alleged participation in the Portuguese workers’ movement”, who had three months of her sentence left to serve.¹

On 28 April, Mário Soares, back from exile in France with Maria Barroso, spoke to the crowd from a balcony at Santa Apolónia and went on from there to the Palácio da Cova da Moura, for a meeting with Spínola.² The next day, Spínola received representatives of the banks here: Miguel Quina, José Manuel de Melo, António Champalimaud and Ricardo Espírito Santo.³