Alfredo Assunção

A lieutenant at the Cavalry Practical School in Santarém, he commanded, with Captains Salgueiro Maia and Mário Tavares de Almeida and Lieutenant Rui Santos Silva, the force of about 220 soldiers that occupied the Terreiro do Paço in the early hours of 25 April 1974.³ That morning, the second-in-command of the 7th Cavalry Regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Ferrand de Almeida, surrendered to Salgueiro Maia and to him.⁵

On Rua do Arsenal, with Lieutenant Santos Silva and Sergeant Nunes, he tried to negotiate with Brigadier Junqueira dos Reis, who commanded the regime’s forces. The brigadier gave the order to fire, but no one fired; exasperated, he punched him three times. Assunção did not hit back: he saluted him and withdrew.¹²⁵ The 25 April Association recalls that he stood out for staying calm, even after being assaulted.⁴

In the afternoon, in Largo do Carmo, Salgueiro Maia had ordered an armoured car into firing position and had begun the countdown to fire on the barracks where Marcelo Caetano was when Assunção presented him with two civilians carrying a message from General António de Spínola: Pedro Feytor Pinto and Nuno Távora. Maia let them in.¹² When they came out, it was Assunção who took them to the general’s house in a Cavalry Practical School jeep.²⁵